Art-crush (teaser)

I am just a little obsessed with Laith McGregor's biro sketches of fantiastical bearded men. The use of biro not lends the work not only a sense of nostalgia (doodles in the margins of exercise books, anyone? -- not that they were ever this good!), but also a feeling of intimacy. This is not about big, gutsy brush-strokes, nor eye catching, blossoming colour. Instead, McGregor conveys a delicate fastidiousness that fits well with the rigid mathematical nature of the hexagon formed by the men's beards.

The beard motif veers dangerously close to becming repetitive, but is saved by the way McGregor uses it to make wry commentary on the status of both facial hair as a marker of identity, but also the status of beard imagery in contemporary culture.

See exhibits A-D to verify this proliferation of beardiness:

 

 

McGregor featured in not one but two exhibitions that I missed this year: Sydney's MCA's I Walk the Line: New Australian Drawing, which I missed thanks to being bogged down in essays about Baroque Rome; and a solo show at the Helen Gorrie gallery in Melbourne, which was mysteriously closed when I went there during what should have been its opening hours. Needless to say I was a little heartbroken.

Hex

Untitled, 2

Noel

(Images from Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art)

Veni Vidi Vici (AKA Ancient Rome nerdery)

Centurions and the like by Nomade via Wooster Collective. These have popped up in NY, LA & San Francisco, and I think they are all kinds of awesome.

Sunny side up in Balaclava

(Also spotted in Fitzroy and the CBD, but dark + rain aren't exactly condusive to outside-and-uncovered photos.)


EDIT: This reminds me of a set of tags from France, which were left all over the streets and shop windows of Paris by retired watercolourist Jean-Luc Duez:
The story of Monsieur Duez and the AMOUR tags can be found here.

Joy joy joy division

As seen in Melbourne:



Also found, whilst wandering around Fitzroy & Collingwood:

A long awaited update

It has been a fair while since I last posted here. Too long, in fact. The absence is justified though: I have been grinding out the last two assesments for my Rome subject. The past few weeks have been consumed by this:

And this:

Respectively, an experiential analysis of Michelangelo's Campidoglio, which the more I write about, the more I love; and a comparison of the patronage programs of two Counter Reformation orders: the Jesuits and the Oratorians, which I loved to start with, but now never want to think about again. Suffice to say, I am pleased to be finished. Now to fill my newfound freedom with all things creative rather than just crashing on the couch after work. Ah yes, that is the challenge.

Oh, and by the by, yes I was snowed under, but not so snowed under that I couldn't find time to go to the NGV. This time we investigated a part of the gallery I have spent relatively little time in: the asian collection. The NGV has on at the moment an exhibition of the robes of Imperial China. Fasinating, visual overload, a techinical feast, need I say more. Well there was more: the whole sociocultural angle of how the roles of members of court helped shape the clothing styles they wore. It was fantastic. My little camera struggled to cope with the low lighting, but the red of the walls showed up beautifully, so not all is lost on the photo front.

In closing, I guess I can only promise to be more diligent with posting, what with having no excuse not to! I will do my best.