Archive for the 'Culture' Category

My goodness! I seem to have been neglecting this blog as of late. I haven’t been updating a lot as I’ve mainly been busy with full-time work and haven’t been going to many events recently! (Do check my tumblr though from time to time as I seem to update that more with bits from my life).

However, I am back to give you a brief summary of the Picasso exhibition that was just here in Sydney at the Art Gallery of New South Wales!

Of course, since it was a temporary exhibition, I wasn’t allowed to take photographs, but I will try to list a couple of the ones which were featured in this post!

Note: If you were expecting to see Guernica, you can probably stop reading at this point since it was not one of the paintings featured in the exhibition, not because it wasn’t taken into consideration, but the painting is actually part of the Bilbao Guggenheim collection and not the one from the Picasso museum in Paris!

Now I will be honest and say that Picasso is not actually one of my favourite artists. There, I said it. There are particular pieces of his which I adore and love, such as The Portrait of Dora Maar (featured in the above advertorial for the exhibition), the aforementioned Guernica, and his Bull series which is a very clear and concise example of how to abstract objects/people/animals from real life, but he is actually not my favourite Cubist. That honour actually goes to Juan Gris. In actual fact, most of my favourite Picasso works come from his Blue and Rose Period.

I was a little disappointed that there were not that many of his Blue and Rose period works featured in the exhibition, but overall I felt that the exhibition was balanced in that it had examples from different stages of his life. The most fascinating part of the exhibition was that whoever curated it did a good job of demonstrating Picasso’s changes in style and artistic progress. It’s really interesting to see how someone evolves into their own style from the fundamentals of drawing which they start off with.

To finish off this post, here are some of my favourite pieces from the exhibition:

Bull series (lithograph, 1945)

Les baigneurs (bronze, 1956)

Jacqueline aux mains croisées (oil on canvas, 1954)

and of course, The Portrait of Dora Maar (oil on canvas, 1937)

Forgive the tardiness of this post, but now that I have photos courtesy of my friend Asuma, I can blog about the 2011 Spring/Summer Finders Keepers Market!

The Finders Keepers Markets are a bi-annual event that showcases the work of emerging designers and artists from all around Australia & even New Zealand! Our first markets were held in December 2008 at CarriageWorks in Sydney. in 2009 we successfully launched our first interstate Markets in Brisbane and in 2010 we were proud to be also launching in Melbourne.

With a passion for bringing independent design to the forefront and encouraging the Australian emerging art & design scene, we’ve created markets that maintain a grass roots level however maintain to have work of high standards in both quality and innovative design. (Source: The Finders Keepers website)

I always enjoy going to the markets to see all the interesting wares of local designers and craftspeople. In the past I’ve gone by myself or with my boyfriend (who is not as keen on ‘shopping’ as I am), but this year I took along my friend Asuma (who moved here from Bangladesh to study Medicine), since I knew she would love the sort of things that were being sold at The Finders Keepers, and I’ve made it my mission to show her the cool, arty side of Sydney while she’s here.

Here are some photos that she managed to get of the markets on the Friday night:

One of the highlights of the night was stumbling upon this adorable presentation of cardboard props by dani m designs! I loved it so much that I actually asked them if I could have the cash register and since they were going to dispose of them on Saturday before they went back to Melbourne, they told me to swing by when the markets were closing on Saturday to pick it up! I’m not sure if you guys will ever see this blog entry, but if you do, thank you so much and you should know that it is currently sitting in my room on my workbench desk!

This year’s Finders Keepers Market also had some cool workshops by Rizzeria and Lomography Australia for people who were interesting in Rizzo printing and photography with Lomo cameras. I picked up some 100ISO slide film from them, and also got many compliments on my Lomo La Sardina Cubic throughout the night! And of course, In An Instant Photography was there and you could see everyone flocking to get some crazy Polaroid shots of themselves. It’s definitely not a proper visit to the Finders Keepers Market for me if I don’t get one! Here’s how Asuma and I looked all silly-ed up:

It was very nice to walk around observing all the interesting and quirky wares, but I really did enjoy chatting to some of the stallholders as well. I’m aiming to be able to make enough artworks and craft pieces next year so that I can start applying for a stall of my own at the markets. I think it would be an interesting experience just because of all the opportunities available to network with other artists, designers and craft enthusiasts. And of course, Asuma and I did not part ways from the markets empty-handed! Asuma bought herself an adorable DIY cross-stitch necklace from Delilah Devine. And here’s a photo of my wares below:

A Cut & Stitch Doll from TMOD, a Matryoshka craft panel from Kristen Doran and a super-adorable bow-tie from Marcello Neckwear (I should also mention that the gentleman who sold me the bow-tie was wearing the most awesome three-piece suit ever. What made it even more awesome was that he found it in an op shop for $10.00!)

I’m looking forward to the next lot of Sydney markets, as well as preparing my own application! *fingers crossed*