EXCHANGE55 artists from regional and metropolitan areas around Australia. 110 small scale art works. Exhibition and Art Swap.

Gatakers Artspace311 Kent Street Maryborough Qld

Wed 3rd - Wed 30th NovOpening

Sat 5th Nov, 2pm

Curated by Amanda van Gilswww.artwhatson.com.au/Exchangewww.facebook.com/ExchangeExhibition

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their work to a new audience and provides the local community with an opportunity to engage with a broad cross-section of quality contemporary art. The Annual Art Swap started four years ago as a means for artists to connect and get to know each other’s work as well as enabling them to build up a personal

ew artists would deny an occasional, wistful hankering for La Belle

Epoche - ‘the good old days’ of the legendary Parisian cafe scene in the years leading up to the outbreak of WWI. There, in the steep village streets of Montmartre and across the river Seine in Montparnasse, artists from many lands set up tiny studios minutes away from each other. The local cafe played a crucially important part in the life of the artist. It was a meeting ground for the cross-fertilisation of ideas and gathering of information. Here the avant-garde gathered to plan exhibitions and find patrons and publishers. Artists swapped their works and often proffered them in exchange for art materials or perhaps just a glass of absinthe. Not since the Renaissance had painters, writers, musicians and actors lived and worked together in such an atmosphere of creative ferment and collaboration. Over a century has passed but artists the world over have continued to seek the camaraderie and exchange of ideas in inner city areas where low rents, pubs and ‘cheap eats’ could be found within walking distance. Alas, this way of life has all but disappeared, usurped by affluent folk desirous of a ‘slice of the colour’ that such bohemian communities engender. One by one, the old warehouses, factories and tiny cottages that once quartered studios have been acquired by developers and renovators, forcing artists further and further afield - and apart.

Ah, La Belle Epoche. But romantic notions aside, the studio remains a solitary place where one engages with his or her elusive muse. Moments of frustration, doubts and breakthroughs fluctuate in repetitive cycles. Relationships with galleries and concerns about exhibition opportunities - or lack of - are pondered in silence.The communal meeting place of a local cafe or bar is perhaps no longer a stroll away yet artists being the resourceful and creative individuals they are, have found new ways to come together. It would be rare these days to find a studio that doesn’t have a computer and digital camera close at hand. In embracing current technology artists now share experiences, exchange ideas and information - and occasionally their art - via cyberspace concourse. The artists in Exchange comprise a network of online contacts residing in diverse metropolitan and regional areas around Australia. It seems that the mute keyboard and computer screen has of necessity, replaced the lively exchange across a cafe table as the means of garnering “encouragement, support and stimulation”. At the beginning of 2010, Amanda van Gils relocated from hometown Melbourne to Hervey Bay in

Regional Queensland. There she experienced firsthand life as an artist far from the creative hub of capital cities. She now resolved to promote an active, vibrant interaction - or exchange - not only between artists, but within regional communities as well. By the end of that year this connective spirit was celebrated in a major exhibition curated by van Gils at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. Net Work: the TLF Exhibition showcased 100 works by 38 contemporary artists. Amanda van Gils’ unceasing ‘arts activism’ is once again in evidence with The Exchange exhibition at the Gatakers Artspace in Maryborough, Queensland. The exhibition has a threefold purpose: it encompasses the fourth Annual Art Swap in which artists exchange works with each other; gives artists the occasion to show

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11. Amy Clarke12. Simon Collins13. Jacqui Comer14. Dagmar Cyrulla15. Inga Dalrymple16. Chris Delpratt17. Robert Fenton18. Stefan Gevers19. Michelle Giacobello20. Triecia Gibney21. Erika Gofton22. Alizon Gray23. Tim Gresham24. Brett Hayes25. Debbie Hill26. Belinda Johnstone27. Gabrielle Jones28. Meryn Jones29. Julie Keating30. Siobhan Kelley31. Deborah Klein32. Sue Kneebone33. Emma Langridge34. Sheena Larsen35. Emma Lindsay

1. Kim Anderson2. Aliey Ball3. Jan Berg4. Sue Beyer5. Joseph Bezzina6. Louise Blyton7. Mishka Borowski8. Claire Bridge9. Susan Buret10. Carmel Byrne

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collection. The first swap was a simple affair of 12 artists swapping a small work, ‘kris kringle’ fashion, with each other. Up until now the works were simply posted to the recipient and never publicly displayed. The 2011 Annual Art Swap exhibited in Exchange, has works by 55 emerging and established artists. Pushing aesthetic boundaries, visually, conceptually and in the use of materials, the works on display present a wonderful spectrum of creative expression. The paintings, drawings, sculptures, constructions, collages, photographs and digital pieces give ample testimony to the vitality of art in Australian today. Art illuminates life - it excites the senses and animates our critical faculties. A deep involvement with an artwork is rewarded not only with an increased awareness of aesthetic possibilities, but it can extend our perception of socio-cultural issues. Regardless of the style employed, artists seek to give pictorial voice to their individual perceptions of reality. Works of extraordinary realism vie with abstractions where gestural strokes, random scratch marks, colours and

textures are orchestrated to convey a particular mood. Others strive for a transcendence by investigating conceptual space and minimalist forms. Alternatively, certain artists are grounded in the dynamics of everyday life or the relationships between human habitation and the environment. The Exchange exhibition is a veritable cornucopia of visual experience. The exchange of views and artworks between widely diverse and dispersed artists has culminated in this significant exhibition at Gatakers Artspace. The exchange however, is only completed by an interaction with the audience. Art is made to communicate, to share observations, thoughts and feelings about the inner and outer worlds, and as such needs the viewer’s response to give it life. In the

presence of this prodigious body of work we are charmed, inspired and occasionally challenged to reflect on art and our common existence in a new and completely enjoyable way. Time now to engage in some lively cultural exchanges of our own!

JACQUELINE HOUGHTON

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www.thedesignweb.com.au

36. Glenn Locklee37. Vito Manfredi38. V.R. Morrison39. Nicola Moss40. Deb Mostert41. Ilona Nelson42. Alexandre Prado43. Chris Ramsey44. Meaghan Shelton45. Caitlin Street46. Rosa Tato47. Mark Threadgold48. Merryn J. Trevethan49. Joanne Turner50. Amanda van Gils51. Steve Warburton52. Irene Wellm53. Ian Wells54. Dominic White55. Darian Zam

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