Having opened ARTIS PURA within the Woolloongabba Art Gallery I am excited daily by the amazing art that comes through the doors. Wanting to help showcase some of the amazing local talent we are now using our wall space to show local artists who are struggling to get their art out there to the general public. We offer the artist a solo exhibition space within a commercial gallery where their works are framed using our stock frames at no cost to the artists. This is sometimes the first time the artist has had a solo show or even seen their works hanging professionally framed. All works are for sale either framed or unframed and unlike a commercial gallery the buyer is able to take the work with them allowing the artist to restock the wall and hopefully make more sales.
Our first artist, BAREK, is well known in the street art world but not to the general public. Mainly doing “paste up's” his work is temporary and fleeting. He also works extensively on found supports such as old piano music, cardboard boxes and even cupboard doors. His imagery is whimsical and illustrative with stylised characters that reflect different aspects and events in his life. I have been a fan of Barek's work for a while now and was excited that he was our first artist exhibition. His works have been well received by the public and consequently have been flying off the walls. The show is up for another two weeks so make sure you pop in to see it.
While you are here seeing our exhibition you can also take in not one, but two other shows at the gallery. Woolloongabba Art Gallery now has a rental gallery space upstairs known as WAG Upstairs. So at any one time there are three completely separate shows running in one space. What makes this work so well is each space is completely separate so the shows do not interfere with each other.
Just finished at WAG Upstairs was our own Grace Herrmann along with WAG gallery assistant Kazumi Daido, gallery intern Peggy Rae Allen and a close friend of the gallery, Penelope Grills. Fish Die Mouth is “A gathering of women artists who have joined forces to verbally share memories of their individual personal histories, consciously creating a future memory, so as not to be forgotten.”* Although the show has now finished you can still view and purchase the works online.
