Category: art

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ArtStart grants of up to $10,000…

If you are a recent graduate or a final year student in any of the creative arts, then you should definitely check this website out! 

The Australia Council for the Arts are offering ArtStart grants that could provide you with up to $10,000 to help get your arts career on its way.  The Australia Council makes 200 grants available each year. 

Check out http://www.artstartgrant.com.au/ for more information and to apply, and make 2011 your year to express, impress, and inspire!

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© Copyright Australia Council for the Arts
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deconstruction and reconstruction

The deconstruction and reconstruction of 49 Porter Street continues today.  Provided the guy from eBay shows up, we will remove the internal glass dividing wall and all of the carpet, leaving us with a blank canvas on which we can start constructing the gallery and art space.

With three weeks left in January, things are still looking good for an end-Jan, start-Feb opening.

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is this art? hipstamatic photography?

I really enjoy photography.  I’m not sure that I’m actually any good at it, but I do enjoy it.

I used to shoot on a Canon EOS500, then a Kodak LS633, then a Canon IXUS60 and now have a Canon 1000D.  I don’t mind admitting that I don’t know how to use photoshop, so when I want to get creative I use my (all manual plastic) Holga and for more immediate artistic gratification, Hipstamatic on my iPhone.

Holgas and Hipstamatic are great, because you’re never quite sure of what the output is going to be.

My question is this… are photos taken with Hipstamatic art?  Do Hipstamatic proofs have any place in a gallery?

Comments are now open!

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what will we exhibit? what is art?

One hundredth gallery wants to exhibit talent in all of its forms.  When open, we will provide a space for talented people to exhibit their creations, whatever those creations may be.  One hundredth gallery will be an ‘art space’ for creative people; not just a gallery.

So before we become pigeonholed as a traditional art gallery, please let me outline what I would like to see in our art space during the next 12 months…

  • Fashion.  One hundredth gallery will be ideal for showcasing new designs, new collections, and new ideas in couture or wearable art.
  • Jewellery makers and craftspeople.  Exhibit your new work and launch your new collections to the public and to commercial buyers alike.
  • Music.  I would love for both traditional and experimental musicians to use the space to launch new sounds, compositions, and lyrics.
  • Literature/Poetry.  Poets, authors, writers.  Come one; come all to launch your new short story, book, or essay, and/or to conduct readings of your own work.
  • Film.  Writers, producers, directors… the art space can be set up with projectors to display your moving images.
  • Dance.  Not sure if we will have enough space, but we’re willing to give it a go!
  • Street art. Put your talent on display with the aim of signing commissioned work.
  • Etc.

One hundredth gallery aims to be a part of the process that enables creative people to make their work/art public. 

One hundredth gallery will of course exhibit all traditional forms of art as well… painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, installation, photography etc.

If you haven’t already, please get in contact (charles@100thgallery.com)  to exhibit your art in one hundredth gallery’s art space in 2011.

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the greatest gift to an artist is

It was one of the greatest gifts I ever received.  A gift that was so thoughtful that I never saw it coming.  A gift that was so well coordinated, that I whilst I didn’t need to do much, I got so much out of it.

It was for my 27th birthday.  A group of four close friends secretly got together to gift me my dream.  I was stunned, humbled, and thrilled.  I am still stunned, humbled, and thrilled!

They knew that I had ‘parked’ my art in favour of the corporate life; but they also knew that my desire to paint, draw, print and exhibit was still running hot.  I had just turned out a new oil pastel series and the works were randomly hanging around the house.  Hanging around for no one to see… just like the 80+ pieces of art that came before it. 

And so, my close friends secretly worked on gifting me my dream.  My dream of a solo public exhibition. 

They organised the space, the grand opening party, a real estate board promoting the exhibition in one of Kensington’s busiest intersections, newspaper ads, and weekly full-page display ads in the local real estate agent’s magazine.

This was the greatest gift that they could give to an (aspiring) artist, and something that I will always be very thankful for.

Something clicked in me that day.  I didn’t quite know what it was at the time but a seed was planted.  A seed that would grow into an idea that would form a concept that would develop into the one hundredth gallery.

The one hundredth gallery aims to give the dream of ‘exhibition’ to all artists.

If you have a friend, relative, or anyone special who is aspiring, emerging or established in their art, why not gift them their dream.  ‘Exhibition Certificates’ for the nine walls within one hundredth gallery are now available.  Please see the ‘PRICING’ page for details and please email me at charles@100thgallery.com for further details and to place an order.

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contact me, or else

So Charles, what happens if you can’t find emerging artists to display their art in 100thgallery?

Easy – I’ll explore my egotistical self and display my own art!

Do you have enough art to fill 32 linear metres of wall space?

Not yet, but I have enough pent-up inspiration to set to work whilst the gallery fit out is being done.

Sounds like a lot of work.

I don’t think you can call it work.  Spending hours on end painting in my studio with Ben Harper and/or Jeff Buckley, with a bit of Lisa Mitchell and Prince on the side is not work… it’s a pleasure to be doing what I love.

So, that’s it ladies and gentlemen!  If you’re not going to take the next step and launch your artistic career, I’m going to ‘plan b’ and will exhibit my own work to progress my own artistic career!

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inspirationism

The year was 1993.  I had learned the art of etching and my teachers and peers had convinced me to let go of realism and explore expressionism.  So I started etching some weird and wonderful things.  All done with thin lines and enhanced with pen and ink.  My free flowing thought connected to my etcher (can’t remember if this had a proper name) and produced a heap of symbolism, some of it with intentional meaning and some of it sub-conscious thought.  Friends and peers asked me if they could score some of the acid that I was on (I wasn’t by the way) and teachers loved the originality of what I was creating.  My prints were sent to Japan, came 2nd in a Royal Melbourne Show thingy, and got me some great grades, including my only perfect score.

Due to the (apparent) high level of symbolic detail in the prints, I was always asked what they meant; what I was thinking when I did them; and what I was trying to express.  My answer changed depending on the day, and depending on who was asking the question, but the common thread was that they were just free flowing expression without intention. 

I needed a better answer.  So I started answering these questions in the following way…  ‘It’s not really relevant what I was thinking when I did it; what I’m most interested in, is what does it mean to you when you look at it?’  Genius.  I had just worked out how to legitimately answer this question with a question!

Very soon after this, I started my own art movement.  My work didn’t fit into the expressionist, impressionist, cubist, or surreal schools, so I named my movement the ‘school of inspirationism’ and registered it as a business.  As you all know, inspirationism now ranks as an equal with all other artistic schools that came before it and is also taught at all of the top schools and universities.  I also have an Aston Martin made of pure platinum.

Inspirationism will live on at 100thgallery.  Not because it is a movement unto itself, but because all art ‘inspires’.  Art inspires change, it inspires emotion, it inspires thought, it inspires action, and at a minimum it inspires us to say that we can do better.

If you’re interested in having a look at some of the old ‘inspirationism’ stuff, please check out www.inspirationism.com.  This website still exists as I never took it down and is still hosted on an old iPrimus dial up account… yes people, dial up.

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you are good enough

Art is in the eye of the beholder. 

Now that my plans to open an art gallery are posted for the entire world to see, I have started to have some very interesting conversations with some very talented people.

Unfortunately, the conversations seem to be following similar lines…

CTH – Wow!  Your work is really good.  Have you ever thought about exhibiting?

Artist – No, it’s just a hobby and I’m really not good enough.

Pffft… look around people.  Art is everywhere.  We have all seen works that make us scratch our heads and say, why on earth did someone pay money for that?  Art is in the eye of the beholder and we all have an inner artist that the world should be allowed to see/hear/feel.

Art is primarily about expression.  If you can express yourself in a way that provides you an outlet whilst making an impression on others, then your job is done.  If your art then inspires others to make positive changes in their own lives, then you have truly succeeded.

This is why one hundredth gallery’s tag line is express | impress | inspire.

Take a chance… as it is likely that you are good enough!

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world’s best galleries

I appreciate how fortunate I am. 

I studied hard, worked hard, put in the 16 hours days, and have yielded some of the rewards for doing so.  A big part of these rewards was being asked to relocate from Melbourne to Bristol, UK for three years (2005-2008).  Whilst I originally declined the offer (twice), I ended up accepting it as there was no good reason not to.  Whilst the work was extremely challenging and required incredibly long hours, I made a commitment to keep my weekends for me and to do as much travelling as I could fit in and afford.  I aimed for a weekend trip every six weeks and based my travels on EasyJet’s cheapest flights.

I did over 70 trips whilst I was over there, and each cost me roughly the same as a big night out.  You see, flights with EasyJet from Bristol to just about anywhere in Europe were rarely more than 60 quid… return… including all taxes.  In fact, many of my trips were only £30 quid with the cheapest one was to Rome (return)  for only £20!  Oh, how I miss EasyJet…

I love walking, and that was how I got around each city I visited.  Hostels and Pensiones are normally right in the heart of cities so they always made a good base.  Walking allowed me to get into the fabric of each city and to absorb the culture the best way I could.  It allowed me to soak up the architecture, street art, laneway art galleries, and to see things that trains, buses, and taxis don’t go near.

I also have Portuguese blood somewhere way back in my genealogy; just enough to give it me some Portuguese facial features.  As the Portuguese travelled a lot back in the day, the benefit of having some Portuguese blood is that I looked Italian when in Italy, Spanish when in Spain, French when in France, Portuguese when in Portugal and Dutch when in the Netherlands.  The detriment of this was that the locals always responded to me in the local language!

My assignment to Bristol gave me the opportunity to see some of the world’s great galleries; both big and small.  It is too difficult to choose a favourite gallery, but the Uffizi in Florence will always hold a special place for me as the city of Florence is in itself a living, breathing art gallery.

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my favourite art

When at school, I concentrated on realism.  Portraits, landscapes, nature, and still life were my subjects.  However, as I progressed through my year levels I discovered Cubism, Surrealism, Expressionism and Impressionism.  I had found home.

Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali have always been my biggest inspirations.  Not necessarily by their works, but the freeing nature of their works and the thought processes that may have led to those works.  Neither artist seemed to be encumbered by conscious reality, proper form, or by societal pressures.  Both seemed to paint with their souls; transcending space and time, whilst tapping into their blissful subconsciousness and appealing to ours.  Both successfully used representations to tell a story and/or to explain a problem, and both were expert technicians.

To ‘unlearn’ what we know in order to be able to express ourselves in new and inspiring ways is something that I aspire towards.  Hopefully there are others out there that feel the same; others that I can help get there.  Emerging artists… I’m waiting to hear from you!

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