Monday 21 May 2012

The syndicate opened at Mosman Art gallery on 18 May. It was opened by Anita Taylor who's the director and CEO of the National ArtSchool. In her speech she was extraordinarily insightful for having visited the exhibition without any commentary from me or the staff as far as i know. She spent a generous amount of her speech interpreting and analysing the work showing extraordinary making some knowledgeable references. I was flattered by many of the things she said.
The art school that she represents is one with a great tradition and  history that has produced some fantastic artists. There are many parallels with the art school I studied at, Claremont School of art.
My show opened with a solo show by Ken Done titled 'Attack' which commemorated the 1942 attack by the Japanese midget submarines in Sydney Harbour,   it's 70th anniversary.
Quite contrasting shows of course but visitors to either show enjoyed both exhibitions sometimes with quite a surprise at the quality of what they saw.
I had spent a few days before the exhibition helping set up the sculptures. This was due to some difficulties with the galleries renovations that meant that I had to supervise the unpack of the works. Another complication to this was that I had just had a motorcycle accident a few weeks before, breaking my neck and right arm, so I was pushing things a bit to be there in Sydney.
As difficult as that was, i was really glad that I did get the extra time to be there. The show looks fantastic and a great video was shot by Julie Patterson interviewing me about the show, she did a great job editing it and published it on the Mosman art Gallery website.
While in Sydney for the show I was assisted by my sister Rebecca to help me get around to various exhibitions and galleries.
In particular, I saw the refurbished in MCA, and a fantastic pop-up ARNDT contemporary art Gallery in Kent st showing my friends' entang Wiharso's work as well as some extraordinary other Indonesian contemporary artists alongside European luminaries like Sophie Calle and Bill Viola.
I also saw the White Rabbit gallery showing mostly contemporary Chinese art and the AGNSW exhibiting the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman art  prizes. What I most enjoyed at the AGNSW was the John Kaldor  collection in the new wing.

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