April 12, 2013
The Kingaroy Art Gallery officially unveiled their April exhibition to a small crowd this evening.
But everyone who attended was full of praise for it, as well as the three artists who’d put it together – Lee Brewer (aka Anon), Di Prickett and Zoe Basham.
The exhibition – “Rock Art, Pop Art: The Best Of Anon” – is the first public showing that Brewer, from Wilkesdale, has had since 2011.
He’s been painting for six years but originally dabbled in it as a hobby.
As time has passed he admits he’s begun to take painting much more seriously. So much so that he spent the last two years largely locked away from the world in an effort to find his “voice” in paint.
Most people at tonight’s opening agreed the effort hadn’t been wasted.
Brewer’s new show contains a number of his earlier works but the bulk of it was created since mid-2011. It occupies the main gallery and wraps around all the Gallery’s hallways.
Brewer’s preferred style is abstract but his techniques are so varied he could be said to have no particular style at all. No two works are alike.
Former Kingaroy Gallery curator Paul Van Vegchel told southburnett.com.au he thought Brewer had advanced dramatically over the last two years.
“The exhibition shows that Lee is really becoming a serious artist,” he said.
Prickett has only been taking photos for the last two years and has never been shown in public before.
Her exhibition covers a range of subjects from pop-flavoured studies of musical instruments created especially for this month’s show through to everyday items and flowers.
They’re all shot with great care and attention to detail.
But the most striking photos – and the ones which make her talent most obvious – are a set of three sepia studies of herself and members of her family that line one wall.
Prickett’s brooding “Self Portrait”, which was shot on her front porch, is so electrifying it almost leaps out of the frame.
It’s well worth seeing for its own sake.
14 year old Zoe Basham, meanwhile, usually sketches. But recently she took up painting in acrylics on canvas at the urging of her grandfather.
Exhibition curator Wayne Brown said it was Zoe’s grandfather who’d originally approached the Gallery to have her works shown there.
However, after seeing them they realised the grandfather was speaking out an eye for the art rather than just grandfatherly love foe a grandaughter.
“We’re very proud to be launching this young artist’s career tonight,” Brown told the audience.
“We hope that in future years when her career takes off, she’ll remember us and come back again one day. We’d be very glad to have her here.”
All three exhibitions will remain on show daily until the end of the month.
Admission to view them is free.
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