Anniversary show of 14 artists

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 18

Anniversary show of 14 artists

“14th Anniversary Show Canterbury Artists,” by Grant Banbury, Joanna Braithwaite, Garry Collins, Neil Frazer, Bill Hammond, Doris Lusk, Quentin MacFarlane, Simon Ogden, Don Peebles, Riduan Tomkins, Philip Trusttum, Bianca van Rangelrooy, Gordon Walters and Tracy Wilson at the Brooke/Gifford Gallery until June 9. Reviewed by Pat Unger. The Brooke/Gifford Gallery’s 14 th Anniversary exhibition by 14 well known artists is a fairly predictable event. A few of the works are outstanding, others stand out (only because of their “quality” framing) and the rest have a familiar or forgettable quality.

All are concerned with personal exploration or art market tastes, with not a hint of anger or doubt to disturb the viewer — except, of course, Bill Hammond’s “Head Bone,” which is fairly Dali-awful.

Doris Lusk’s “Composition with Spanish Putto," a still life animated by marks drawn into watercolour, has a feeling of freshness. Simon Ogden’s paper collages challenge their planar space with brave colour and unerring design and Quentin MacFarlane’s “Australian Coast” is an expressionist’s gesture towards realism through the use of well-practised contrivances such as a horizonline, lateral brush strokes and hot-associated colours.

Riduan Tomkins’ two “Untitled” works identify him as the thinking person’s painter. He challenges the eye to see hidden works within works — to dwell on events implied on and beneath his painterly surfaces. .Add all this visual information to further clues,- given like a processing code at the edges, plus figurines, placed rather quixotically in subtle blue/yellow and

green/red colour harmonies, and the viewer ends up with a puzzling but enjoyable aesthetic. The wild romanticism of stags at bay, ill at ease in the civilised ambience of an art gallery environment, is captured by Joanna Braithwaite’s charcoal “Deer Study” in a well constructed and appealing way. Reflecting abstract art’s present oscillation away from the mechanistic and the geometric towards more organic and primal things, Garry Collins’ “Even Song” and “Sheltet II” skilfully portray spiritual and lumpen states of being.

But the outstanding work is “Study relating to A2” by Don Peebles. Again his torn strips of paper, constructed in naturalistic form similar to a butterfly fixed forever into its perspex ceil, transcend formal theory to become a rich and rewarding experience.