PREPARE to be wowed by a wide array of art and design as the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery hosts a trio of excellent exhibitions this summer.
The first of the exhibitions officially opened on December 3 was Re-imagined Narrative, and featured the work of noted “naive” artist Wayne Elliott.
Elliott’s work stunningly explores country towns, from the eyes of a bird, an insect or a cartographer.
The vibrant colours and the unique designs make Elliott’s work addictive and gallery visitors will want to stay all day.
Elliott also drew up a skeleton of a country town in the gallery with an area set up for viewers to interact and draw an object to incorporate into the collage.
Young and old coloured away at their drawings of country town icons including sheep, grapevines, people fishing on the lake and helicopters in the sky.
The gallery is also hosting Songlines which features the work of students from the Koori Cultural Arts Course at Swan Hill Sunraysia Institute of TAFE.
The work includes that of Elders and younger students, comprising a mix of Koori contemporary and traditional work, ceramics and instruments.
Artist Stacey-Lee Warren explained her work was inspired by the dreamtime story of Kondoli – the whale man.
“He was meant to bring fire to the people but he didn’t and they speared him,” Ms Warren said.
“Kondoli dove into the sea where he transformed into a whale, while the others present were transformed into their totem animals – including a shark, a stingray, and a seal.”
Other artists included Dianne Clare, Suzanne Connelly-Klidomitis, Ramptha (Lexie) Edwards, Elsa Kirby, Josephine Kirby, Michael Moore, Bradley O’Connell and Steven Wellington.
The final exhibition wil is the Big Fish Five exhibition, which displays the work of young artists and creators that has been produced for VCE studio arts and visual communications.
Artists included John Hoare, Christopher Sherman, Brahe Lorimer, Josephine Glowrey, Ruby Hollingworth, Eva Wong, Rizky Firmansyah, Tamika Hann, Liam Hawley, Eva Mesley, Georgie Ayson, Minh Dang, Jenna Conlan, Christopher Bell, Liana Stacey, Claudia Free and Ellie Rollinson.
These exceptional works spanned paintings, photography, and film, with some fantastic production design concepts for agricultural, hospitality and candle companies.
Like Elliott who had workbooks displaying his work process, the young people had their folios as part of the exhibition – showing off all the work they had completed in a hectic year.
