Grazia Marin
23 December 2006 - 16 March 2007
The Mythical and the Real
- crossing concepts and styles -
The Entrance to the Underworld, acrylic, 122 cm x 92 cm, 2006
Grazia’s exhibition of 25 works in acrylics, oils, pastel, water-colours, pencil and mixed media, includes people and places, Australian and overseas, real and imagined, in varied styles and approaches. The pen and ink drawing of The Colosseum is not what one would expect, but a small piece, a corner of stone, from that famous construction. In a totally different style and approach, The Styx of the Underworld and The Entrance to the Underworld in acrylics are big, dark, brooding semi abstracted landscapes. Different again, Off the Dunny Door is literally that - a reproduction of the memory of a beautifully weathered old yellow dunny door on a farm, complete with dirt and flaking layers of paint, revealing earlier layers underneath. Annabranch of the Darling, a pencil drawing, is taken from an aerial photo of the tributary of the Darling River south of Broken Hill - soft blue tendrils of water on a pale pastel coloured background.
Communication 1, 2, 3 mixed media, 84 cm x 60 cm, 2006
Three mixed media works, Communication 1, 2 and 3, are in ink and charcoal with strips of print from the White Pages. Joy, another mixed media work, incorporates acrylic, pencil, ink and paper lace doilies - light and airy with warm colours, I found it a joy to look at.
Sasha and Grace are figurative portraits in water-colours; they both have such pleasant faces and expressions - friends of the artist? I particularly enjoyed the 6 Figure Studies after Dumas, all soft, blurred semi abstract human forms, some just a hint of or shadow of form, others with more substance and solidity. Crossed Arms clasps its torso with head bowed; Dancer takes a step forward.
I felt this show was a good showcase of the artist’s range of work, and certainly a good crossing of concepts and styles.
Review by Cressida Fox