Amber Wallis :: new. upcoming. works in progress. home.

sweetheart

2012-01-06T20:17:00.001+11:00

to many happy new years.
here is my sweethearts new blog:
linoleum falcon

Dark Gully/Sex Drawings

2011-12-15T10:22:00.001+11:00

Belated images from my recent solo Dark Gully/Sex Drawings at Utopian Slumps. Thanks to Thomas Jeppe for the pics.

2011-11-29T19:24:00.000+11:00

Dark Gully/Sex Drawings

2011-11-05T16:10:00.001+11:00

OPENING THURSDAY 10 NOVEMBER 6 – 8PM
EXHIBITION FRI 11 NOVEMBER UNTIL 3 DECEMBER 2011

AT UTOPIAN SLUMPS
GROUND FLOOR, 33 GUILDFORD LANE MELBOURNE
WWW.UTOPIANSLUMPS.COM
HOURS: WED – SAT 12 – 6PM
OTHER TIMES BY APPOINTMENT: +61 3 9077 9918

Utopian Slumps is pleased to announce the opening of Dark Gully/Sex Drawings from Amber Wallis on Thursday 10 November 2011.

Dark Gully/Sex Drawings is a solo exhibition focusing on Wallis’ experiences of place and sexual thought. Following on from her exhibition I Fuck Mountains in 2010, she continues to explore the merging of form and metaphor; landscape and sex; and atmosphere and mortality with this new collection of paintings and drawings.

The paintings depict the terrain of ‘Dark Gully’ — a hirsute bend in the road leading to Palm Beach, Sydney — and its vistas. In a furtherance of earlier works, Wallis captures the line, weather and movement of the landscape in which she lives, and continues to transpose elements of her tangible surroundings with those of an equally-precipitous inner realm.

Wallis’ contemporary landscapes are tightly rendered yet simultaneously loose in composition. They bear the mark of an original hand whilst paying tribute to the traditional language of painting. Her rich colour palette, playful lines and uninhibited form are inspired by the mid-20th century Abstract Expressionist movement and its underpinning ethos: that the canvas should serve the artist as a recipient of an event rather than simply the substrate on which to fix a picture.

The sex drawings are gentler, layered materially with collage and metapsychologically with sexual implication. The inquiring lines that traverse the drawings reference a landscape that merges into the undulations of the body as a sort of transcendent fecundity.

Also present is a collaborative work with close friend and fellow painter William Mackinnon. This sees Mackinnon’s landscape prints of the hills and sea at Port Fairy paired congruously with Wallis’ collage and delicate line work.

Dark Gully/Sex Drawings is a generous and lyrical representation of the artist’s ongoing residence in a dynamic, hedonistic and oft tumultuous niche between real and imagined worlds.

Wallis is currently on the cover of Australian Art Collector, the subject of an eight page feature written by Carrie Miller entitled ‘Psychoactive Painting'. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Photomedia at the Canberra School of Art, ACT and participated in an exchange program with Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Canada in 2002. She completed her Master of Visual Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne in 2008 and was the winner of the tenth Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship in 2008. During her scholarship she worked from studios at ISCP, New York, Redbird Studios, Montreal and completed a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. Wallis was also resident artist at the Canberra School of Art in 2009. Solo exhibitions include Mountains Full of Sky/Salty Lines, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane, 2011; I Fuck Mountains, Utopian Slumps, 2010; Dark Gully/Psychic War, Chalk Horse, Sydney, 2010; and Circle of Eagles, Utopian Slumps, 2009. Selected group exhibitions include Need to Seem to Glimpse, C3, 2011; The New Arcadia, Lismore Regional Gallery, 2011; Worm Mountain, C3, 2010; Territorial Pissings, Utopian Slumps, 2010; The Shilo Project, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2009; Chalk Reindeer, Chalk Horse, Sydney, 2009; South, Monster Children Gallery, Sydney, 2009; Brett Whiteley Travelling Arts Scholarship, Brett Whiteley Studio AGNSW, Sydney, 2008; Thank God We Died Together, TCB art inc., Melbourne, 2008; Autumn 2008, Moving Galleries, Melbourne, 2008; Robert Jacks Drawing Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, 2008; and Swans and Ammo, with Lizzie Hall, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2007. Wallis currently lives and works in Palm Beach, NSW.

Dark Gully/Sex Drawings from Amber Wallis will take place at Utopian Slumps, Ground Floor, 33 Guildford Lane Melbourne, from 10 November to 3 December 2011. For further information please contact Melissa Loughnan on +61 3 9077 9918 or melissa@utopianslumps.com.

Image: Amber Wallis, Dark Gully Rear View Bat Lines, 2011, oil on linen, 1220 x 1520mm.

last strokes.

2011-10-31T18:07:00.000+11:00

lucky last painting.
'dark gully/sex drawings' opens at utopian slumps next thursday 10 november 2011 - full moon - more details soon.

Australian Art Collector

2011-09-28T15:54:00.008+10:00

um.
the issue comes out October 6 2011.

http://www.artcollector.net.au/home

2011-09-23T07:25:00.000+10:00

Utopian Slumps: The Collingwood Years. Book Launch.

2011-09-13T08:48:00.001+10:00

BOOK LAUNCH SATURDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 4 – 6PM
AT UTOPIAN SLUMPS
GROUND FLOOR, 33 GUILDFORD LANE MELBOURNE
WWW.UTOPIANSLUMPS.COM
+61 3 9077 9918

Utopian Slumps is pleased to announce the launch of Utopian Slumps: The Collingwood Years, a retrospective book documenting the exhibitions and events that took place during the gallery's non-profit years from 2007 to 2009.

Designed by Chase & Galley, the book includes artist pages from Amber Wallis, Brendan Huntley, The Changes, Damp, Dan Moynihan, Jake Walker, Mark Rodda, Ry Haskings and Tristan Ceddia. The visual content is interspersed with texts from curators and arts writers including an interview between Hannah Mathews and Melissa Loughnan, a short story from Amanda Maxwell, and essays from Amelia Douglas, Andrew Gaynor & Emma Langride, Helen Hughes, Rebecca Coates, Phip Murray, Rosemary Forde, Dunja Rmandic & Nella Thermelios and Meredith Turnbull.

The book is presently available for purchase from Utopian Slumps and online via utopianslumps.bigcartel.com for $45.

Utopian Slumps: The Collingwood Years will launch at Utopian Slumps, Ground Floor, 33 Guildford Lane Melbourne, together with V.A. curated by Dylan Martorell on Saturday 17 September 2011. For further information please contact Melissa Loughnan on +61 3 9077 9918 or melissa@utopianslumps.com.

Editorial team: Melissa Loughnan, Helen Hughes, Thomas Jeppe & Chris Barton
Design: Chase & Galley
Publisher: Utopian Slumps
224 pages, 25 x 17.5 x 2.5cm, colour, hard cover cloth bound
Edition of 2000

sweet times

2011-09-13T08:43:00.001+10:00

new studio wall for drawing. this guy. lost animal.

work in progress

2011-08-20T18:56:00.000+10:00

all very pretty and soft in the dark gully corner.

need to seem to glimpse

2011-08-17T18:24:00.001+10:00

upcoming. need to seem to glimpse.
with.
amber wallis
paul philipson
warwick baker
ross taylor
lisa young

c3 Contemporary Art Space
Abbotsford Convent Foundation
1 St Heliers St. Abbotsford VIC

opens 31st august 6-9pm
exhibition runs from 31st august to 18th september 2011
gallery hours wednesday to sunday 10am-5pm

+

2011-08-09T20:56:00.002+10:00

also. diggin some words curator Kezia Geddes put together for The New Arcadia Catalogue:

'Amber Wallis pushes more deeply into what is unseeable in the natural world and acts out a fantasy that she might form a physical relationship with the landscape. The idea begins with connection to place and culminates in the sublime. As with the sublime, the works are loaded with excitement and trepidation. Wallis chooses the Australian landscape as her ideal lover. She explores the textures and undulations of its body and its ultimate fecundity. The work is part of an internal struggle to take on the hurdles and longings in her life. The process of making is like a truth serum, an emptying out of frustration and raw emotion in a hopeful search for rapture. She suspends her physical limitations and gives herself over to the landscape’s generous embrace to feel spiritual transcendence. By surrendering herself to a kind of automatic process, mild obsessions and unresolved emotions make themselves apparent. There is a back and forth motion between mountains, the human form, a moniker, a mind, and a lustful artwork that takes control and makes itself visible of its own accord.'

2011-08-09T16:48:00.001+10:00

new hanging plant + painting, new works in progress, new kurt vile record (specifically this track, but damn its the only thing I can listen too) and my new ride. can't get enough of any of it. especially listening to kurt vile in my new ride.

>/ birch roof

2011-07-24T16:15:00.000+10:00

The New Arcadia

2011-07-24T11:20:00.001+10:00

The New Arcadia
23 July - 3 September Opening 22 July 5:30 for 6pm

Kit Wise, Danie Mellor, Siri Hayes, Jake Walker, Amber Wallis, Hobie Porter, Jan Davis, Joan Ross, Kelly Hussey-Smith, Kendal Murray, Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Fiona Lowry, Shelagh Morgan, Grant Stevens, Judith Van Heeren, Sam Leach. curated by Kezia Geddes

The New Arcadia brings together artists responding to notions of arcadia and the picturesque. It throws light on an idealised depiction of landscape, but with visible disruption. This is the old world butting up against the new as the artists attempt to locate where arcadia is now.

The idea of arcadia is one that has long been dealt with in Western art. The classical arcadia, explored by artists such as Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), presented an unspoiled wilderness, where any implied human presence was harmonious. The word arcadia was derived from the mountainous Greek province of the same name, which dates to antiquity. Arcadia is therefore imbedded with notions of looking back to a paradise enjoyed but lost through the heavy touch of progress and the human hand. It defines nature as transcendent, and ancient beyond our reckoning.

Although we share an awe for environments primordial and pristine, our attitude towards the bountiful landscape can be explained through the alternative definition of the word: ‘to direct, graze, grow, harvest’. These two meanings collide in the pastoral arcadia explored by Western European artists, notably John Constable (1776-1837) and the painters of the French Barbizon school (1830-1870), who studied a landscape in which there was a history of intensive land use. These artists found untamed nature in the clouds and in the atmosphere. Our present civilisation has achieved unparalleled domination over nature and the ‘improved landscape’ is now a loaded term. Most arcadias have already been touched and the idea of yet-to-be discovered environs seems a fanciful notion. In an era of competing interests, today’s arcadia evokes both beauty and compromise. It is out of this context that The New Arcadia unravels.

Lismore Regional Gallery is supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW and is a Creative Industries Initiative of Lismore City Council.

2011-06-30T16:12:00.002+10:00

keeping the chain greased.

The You're Welcome Show

2011-06-10T16:43:00.000+10:00

I am donating to this amazing cause and WOW what a line up, get your ticket pronto and you will get a drawing!

Artists participating include Jackson Slattery, Sam Leach, Jeremy Kibel, Amber Wallis, Fergus Binns, Tony Garifalakis, Dane Lovett and Emily Ferretti to name a few.

All proceeds go to the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre.

dark gully studes

2011-06-10T16:31:00.001+10:00

works progressing and the beginning of some sex drawings (if you look close enough)

penis hat

2011-05-30T15:36:00.002+10:00

yup. awesome. mainly from the judith rothschild foundation show compass in hand at MOMA and the show the unmonumental picture at the new museum.

lovers

2011-05-29T16:36:00.000+10:00

rob mcaffie gave me this beautiful drawing of a 'parisian couple in byron bay 2010' (black frame) it takes up with the other lovers in the boudoir.

the days work

2011-05-28T17:12:00.005+10:00

wow. i never get bored of work in progress and paint shots. the simple things.
margaret preston rework + something undefined + portraits of the portraits in my studio - nick cave, joy hesta's icon, patti smith, christoph, ghost, elvis and penis. i think christoph has gotta go - mars black vs lamp black - mars wins every time. christoph got lamp. i like getting loose. its crucial to remember to get loose no matter the outcome.

The Design Files - Kate Tucker and Family

2011-05-18T11:25:00.000+10:00

The Deign Files. Tom and Kates place. a certain someones art on the walls, plus Charlie Sofo and Kates work! check it.

2011-05-16T16:11:00.000+10:00

2011-05-16T14:22:00.000+10:00

back into life drawing, keep the wheels greased.

ramekin king

2011-05-16T14:12:00.000+10:00

I love these Martin Boyd Pottery ramekins from his pottery studio in the 50's and 60's. Melissa Loughnan sent me a few more for the collection and for my birthday - yay - thank you! what an amazing thought out gift! i am truly blessed.

lost & found hotel part II

2011-05-15T07:59:00.003+10:00

Lost & Found Hotel is back up and running for 2011. Dark Gully/Psychic War on the wall..
Check it out http://www.wearelostandfound.com.au/ photo by Warwick Baker. Go stay there if you are in the great most favourite of towns - Melbourne. You can even stay for free if you check out the site and follow the prompts!

.update.

2011-05-12T08:36:00.002+10:00

meanwhile. the gully is getting cold. a beautiful old hand made chair i picked up for $10 along with some teak parkers off ebay for a home re-upholstery job. Leslie Williamsons beautiful book Handcrafted Modern is worth the postage and handling from the USA. and studio time begins again.

//reverse thunder//

2011-05-12T08:21:00.000+10:00

Scotty is doing his own thing with reverse thunder along with the wilde shapes thing. hit him up to board up.

.jeppe.

2011-05-12T07:18:00.001+10:00

don't work be happy. great to see jeppes work space and his amazing work on the selby no less.

O-O

2011-05-06T08:00:00.002+10:00

I want this bike and the fine handmade leather accesories made by Walnut Studiolo. Buy it, support it, love it!

ll whole tree architecture ll

2011-05-03T08:02:00.001+10:00

http://www.wholetreesarchitecture.com/index.html

..rhys lee..

2011-04-14T07:49:00.000+10:00

http://mrblanc.com/rhys-lee/

ENIVRONMENTS

2011-04-14T07:32:00.003+10:00

Environments is a book of photographs, documenting studio spaces of eleven creative people, most of them working in Melbourne and around.
Featured in the book are artist Amber Wallis, sustainable fashion designer Ellie Mucke, illustrator and graphic designer Luci Everett, artist Justin Lee Williams, graphic designer Marc Martin, artist and jeweler Penelope Niel, graphic designer Suzy Tuxen, artists Miso and Ghostpatrol, sustainable stylist Kim Kneipp, knitwear designer Elizabeth Yong and ceramic artist Belinda Kennedy.
14.8 x 18 cm
106 pages, perfect bound
publication date 10/05/2011
ISBN 978-0-9871054-0-0
The book will be printed locally in Melbourne, Australia on FSC certified recycled paper with soy-based ink.
Limited edition, all copies are signed by the artist.
Order it here:
http://www.environments.bigcartel.com
http://olgabennettphotography.com/projects/environments/

Mountains Full of Sky/Salty Lines

2011-03-10T16:58:00.001+11:00

New solo opening at Edwina Corlette in Brisbane.
Friday 18 March 2011 6-8pm
555 Brunswick St, New Farm QLD

Its a small show but a good one, come along if your in Brisbane!

Contact Edwina directly if you are interested in purchasing any of the works:
TUESDAY – SATURDAY 10.00 – 5.00
P +61 7 3358 6555
F +61 7 3358 6333
E gallery@edwinacorlette.com

LETS' SHARE SOME ENERGY 2011

PENCIL, ACRYLIC & OIL ON LINEN
122.0 X 152.0 CM

TREES 2010

OIL, ACRYLIC, PENCIL ON LINEN
152.0 X 122.0 CM

MOUNTAINS FULL OF SKY/WEST HEAD 2011

PENCIL, CHARCOAL, OIL ON LINEN
100.0 X 130.0 CM

MINOTAUR MAN/THIGH SKY 2011

GOUACHE, CHARCOAL, COLLAGE ON PAPER

.arc.

2011-03-03T19:03:00.001+11:00

Please support Amanda Maxwells new film project:
--

Sometimes when you’re growing up life seems to happen to you all at once, and sometimes all you can do is let it happen…

ARC is the debut short film of Vogue photographer Max Doyle (Director), written by Amanda Maxwell (author of short story collection Nobody Told Me There'd Be Days Like These) and produced by Claire Evans. With rising stars Isabelle Cornish and Sophie Lowe in lead roles, it is the subtle story of a country girl (Sophie) on a fleeting city visit, who finds herself falling for an avant-garde archery prodigy (Tom). He's into her too and it looks like first love could be on the cards... until two older girls step in to initiate Tom into the world of teenage lust themselves... and Sophie finds herself becoming a spectator of what should be her own coming-of-age moment.

In a world where the real archers are too cool for targets, Arc is what happens when Cupid's arrows are lured way off track.

Filming will take place in April 2011 and our pre-production work is well underway.

We're not looking to make a profit with ARC - almost all of the team are working as volunteers - we’re just looking for some additional help to get it made, and to make sure it’s the best film it can be.

All money donated will go directly towards expenses such as gear hire, props and set dressings, post-production, and insurances for all the volunteers.

^we build up^

2011-03-03T18:36:00.002+11:00

Kate Moss is setting up for her installation show We Build Up with Vancouver based artist Marilyne Blais (me below as skype guinea)
--
Holding simultaneous exhibitions at Rearview Gallery in Melbourne, Australia and Artbank in Vancouver, Canada from March 6th. We will be linked via a skype connection that will be projected in both spaces and will be working together to build a mutual structure.

We will be building from March 6th (which is March 7th in Melbourne) until March 11th (12th- Melbourne) We invite you to come by to help us build or even just to stop by and say hello.

The Opening/End of Building party is Friday March 11th from 7pm.
The exhibition runs in Melbourne until March 19th.

Artbank, 1897 Powell Street, Vancouver
Rearview Gallery, rear 244 Smith Street, Melbourne Australia

We have created a blog, as an exchange of info/idea's leading up to the exhibition: http://woodbutchers.tumblr.com/
--
get amongst it if you are in vancouver or melbourne!

::II::

2011-02-25T16:42:00.001+11:00

works in progress. back in the swing of it. feels good.

:yes:

2011-02-21T18:11:00.002+11:00

i was in new york in november 2010 and surprisingly i didn't get any huge hits of inspiriation like the year before, but i did see the show 'on line' at moma and was pretty blown away by this work by Julie Mehretu. inspiring, beautifully handled, a joy to see in the flesh, difficult to establish how it was created ie the ground. layered with silicon and white paint, delicate and absolutely amazing. i find myself very drawn to movement and pushing things to the point of collapse, seeing her work in such delicacy was amazing it made me feel so ghetto, lax and sloppy in comparison. there is much skill in craftsmanship yet to be learnt. the year 2011 will be more about craftsmanship and patience while trying to hold onto the energy and looseness of line.

.lets share some energy.

2011-02-15T18:05:00.001+11:00

almost finished.

..voyage..

2011-01-22T09:07:00.002+11:00

a friend leaves to solo sail around the world tomorrow on his beautiful passpot 42 yacht. . to wish him everythings i have been scouring some poetry for him, I of course immediately jumped to Rimbaud's Drunken Boat - which i will give him - but then i found some other corkers about love and loves first adventures, apt for this summertime farewell. you will be missed Musker, hopefully see on the high seas somewhere in 2011.

D. H Lawrence
In A Boat

See the stars, love,
In the water much clearer and brighter
Than those above us, and whiter,
Like nenuphars.

Star-shadows shine, love,
How many stars in your bowl?
How many shadows in your soul,
Only mine, love, mine?

When I move the oars, love,
See how the stars are tossed,
Distorted, the brightest lost.
So that bright one of yours, love.

The poor waters spill
The stars, waters broken, forsaken.
The heavens are not shaken, you say, love,
Its stars stand still.

There, did you see
That spark fly up at us; even
Stars are not safe in heaven.
What of yours, then, love, yours?

What then, love, if soon
Your light be tossed over a wave?
Will you count the darkness a grave,
And swoon, love, swoon?

--
Arthur Rimbaud
Novel
I.

No one's serious at seventeen.
--On beautiful nights when beer and lemonade
And loud, blinding cafés are the last thing you need
--You stroll beneath green lindens on the promenade.

Lindens smell fine on fine June nights!
Sometimes the air is so sweet that you close your eyes;
The wind brings sounds--the town is near--
And carries scents of vineyards and beer. . .

II.

--Over there, framed by a branch
You can see a little patch of dark blue
Stung by a sinister star that fades
With faint quiverings, so small and white. . .

June nights! Seventeen!--Drink it in.
Sap is champagne, it goes to your head. . .
The mind wanders, you feel a kiss
On your lips, quivering like a living thing. . .

III.

The wild heart Crusoes through a thousand novels
--And when a young girl walks alluringly
Through a streetlamp's pale light, beneath the ominous shadow
Of her father's starched collar. . .

Because as she passes by, boot heels tapping,
She turns on a dime, eyes wide,
Finding you too sweet to resist. . .
--And cavatinas die on your lips.

IV.

You're in love. Off the market till August.
You're in love.--Your sonnets make Her laugh.
Your friends are gone, you're bad news.
--Then, one night, your beloved, writes. . .!

That night. . .you return to the blinding cafés;
You order beer or lemonade. . .
--No one's serious at seventeen
When lindens line the promenade.

.magic.

2010-12-31T11:46:00.006+11:00

on the inspiration kick
white magic are killing me right now. i can't quite deal with it. buy it.

and

oscar wilde
the artist

One evening there came into his soul the desire to fashion an image of The Pleasure that Abideth for a Moment. And he went forth into the world to look for bronze. For he could think only in bronze.

But all the bronze of the whole world had disappeared, nor anywhere in the whole world was there any bronze to be found, save only the bronze of the image of The Sorrow that Endureth For Ever.

Now this image he had himself, and with his own hands, fashioned, and had set it on the tomb of the one thing he had loved in life. On the tomb of the dead thing he had most loved had he set this image of his own fashioning, that it might serve as a sign of the love of man that dieth not, and a symbol of the sorrow of man that endureth for ever. And in the whole world there was no other bronze save the bronze of this image.

And he took the image he had fashioned, and set it in a great furnace, and gave it to the fire.

And out of the bronze of the image of The Sorrow that Endureth For Ever he fashioned an image of The Pleasure that Abideth for a Moment.

::inspired::

2010-12-30T10:04:00.007+11:00

so constantly inspired by the amazing people that come into my life who are living their dream.
go benji, go alex, go rick, go keegan, go mavie, go tim. nice to see riding the long white cloud - finally!
thanks to mavie, cass and maz for looking after dark gully over the last few days while elisa krey took me single handily sailing on the high seas. (in a bikini). amazing. new rule. who ever stays at dark gully must draw a picture of the abode.

Riding The Long White Cloud - Trailer from friendlyfire on Vimeo.

also rick has been posting a bunch of his amazing photos over at jungle tongue - the heart skips a little remembering old times in vancouver from this creepy friendly series. lives past. 2003 maybe?

2010-12-22T10:42:00.002+11:00

the studio is growing.
might post a little more now that the art hiatus is over. might get a bit more homey too.

More Pin Up Your Doodle - Zaishu Grande Finale

2010-11-24T02:42:00.006+11:00

I realise my efforts where pretty rushed and poor for this project, nevertheless the big day is today! so see details at three thousand, apparently ABC Art Nation will be filming and there will be cheese - further details below:
----

Zaishu Grande Finale
For the last 6 years over 1000 artists in 22 countries have been busy
painting, printing, sticking, doodling and generally adding their bit
of creativity to Zaishus, our Japanese inspired slot together seat/table
that doubles as an international collaborative art project.

From our first Zaishu exhibition at The Australian Centre for
Contemporary Art (ACCA) in 2004 with Melbourne's stencil artists the
project has organically evolved and staged over 100 exhibitions around
the globe.

Artists Amber Wallis, Beci Orpin, Rebecca Wetzler Oslo Davis,
Tin&Ed, Karl Maier, Elke Kramer and Tai Snaith have kindly created 8
Zaishus, our last ever, that will be auctioned by Ben Clark of Sotherby's Australia at ACCA where we began.

This event is part of the 'Pin up Your Doodle' art auction where 100% of sales will be donated to Shebeen, Austalia's first non-profit bar.

Wednesday November 24, 6 - 8pm
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
111 Sturt St, Melbourne

Contact Melissa at Utopian Slumps to place a bid melissa@utopianslumps.com +61 403 009 291

Pin Up Your Doodle

2010-11-16T02:19:00.003+11:00

PIN UP YOUR DOODLE
FUNDRAISING AUCTION

Wednesday November 24, 6 - 8pm
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
111 Sturt St Southbank

Entry by raffle ticket at the door.

Artist, celebrity and selected doodles will be auctioned at a special event at The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art on Wednesday 24 November.

The Pin Up Your Doodle auction will be run by Ben Clark of Sotheby’s Australia and will include pieces from Utopian Slumps artists Amber Wallis (winner of the 2008 Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship), Jake Walker (winner of the 2010 inaugural Arkeley Award), Steven Asquith and Mark Rodda; as well as artists Beci Orpin, Tai Snaith, Esther Erlich (winner of 1998 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and the 2000 Archibald People’s Choice Award) and Ken Done; musicians’ doodles such as Paris Wells and Kellie Sutherland (Architecture in Helsinki), television and radio personalities; and members of the Australian Ballet.

All money raised by the Pin Up Your Doodle auction, exhibition and pop-up bar will aid the launch of Shebeen, a non-profit bar supporting the developing world, opening in Melbourne early next year. The doodles to be auctioned will be available to preview during the exhibition at Donkey Wheel House, accompanied by additional doodles available for purchase and at silent auction.

Grolsch

2010-10-26T19:05:00.001+11:00

http://www.grolschgrid.com

Grolsch Grid

2010-10-20T13:21:00.002+11:00

I am in this:

http://www.grolschgrid.com/

http://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/arts-and-entertainment/article/grolsch-grid

2010-10-18T09:06:00.001+11:00

Nice little write up in The Age over the weekend.

show.

2010-10-07T20:26:00.003+11:00

i fuck mountains. utopian slumps. show shots by louis porter. big thanks to stephen mcbean for the title and amanda maxwell for her words.

Sea of Love 2010

Mountains Mountains Mountains/Dark Gully Pittwater Suspend Sky 2010

Out the Back of Norman Lindsay's Place 2009

Trees 2010

Pink Sky Trees 2010

Dark Gully Mountain Knee View 2010 diptych

Untitled (Hills) 2010

Sky Reflect 2010

The Age Melbourne & Three Thousand

2010-10-07T17:01:00.003+11:00

The Age, Melbourne

Whats On: Your daily guide to the arts

06 October 2010

& of course over at three thousand....

Not-Quite-Critics

2010-10-07T07:08:00.003+11:00

Great review up at not-quite-critics. Thanks Alison!

my favourite people

2010-10-03T21:58:00.002+11:00

my favourite people. at my show. at magic power!

Broadsheet Melbourne

2010-09-29T13:58:00.002+10:00

" The new show at Utopian Slumps by Sydney-based artist Amber Wallis traces an intersection between landscape and sexuality.'

The Interview is up here at Broadsheet Melbourne - thanks Dan, it was lovely talking to you!

Chalk Horse interview

2010-09-19T08:07:00.001+10:00

Belated interview up at the Chalk Horse Blog all about Dark Gully/Psychic War show...

I Fuck Mountains

2010-09-06T11:29:00.008+10:00

Amber Wallis
I Fuck Mountains
Utopian Slumps, Ground Floor, 33 Guildford Lane, Melbourne
Opening Thursday 30 September 6-8pm
Exhibition Fri 1- Sat 23 October 2010

I Fuck Mountains presents the third solo exhibition from Wallis; an actualisation of the artist’s compulsion to draw a simple shape – the half oval – again and again; and her search for meaning in this repetition.

Exploring the abutment and/or merging of form and metaphor, terrain and sex, atmosphere and mortality, the works pick from the artist’s unresolved emotions and fixations.
With the mountain as a moniker, the works are rich in emotion, colour, line, and form, and are inspired by the greater tradition of abstract expressionism. They provide an experience of Wallis’ world, where the act of artistic creation is as vital as the outcome.

Paintings are at times heavily rendered and at other times approached with careful assemblage. Often as though they are drawings with the determined brevity of an action painting: one shot, one sitting, brief, and emotive. Capturing the line, colour and movement of the land in which she lives, as well as her more psychological interior landscapes. Present is her overall concern with the language of painting.

The body of work builds on themes that emerged while Wallis undertook residencies in New York, Montreal and Paris in 2009 on the Brett Whiteley Traveling Art Scholarship, and reflects her current sense of isolation living at Dark Gully; an old house nestled in bush above the ocean north of Sydney. It also represents a progression of ideas from the artist’s recent solo exhibition, Dark Gully/Psychic War at Chalk Horse, Sydney, partly focusing on the experience of creation through the often unspoken psychic war between two people.

The title of this exhibition is taken from a Pink Mountaintops song.

2010-08-26T20:38:00.001+10:00

Dark Gully/Psychic War

2010-08-07T13:45:00.002+10:00

Dark Gully/Psychic War
Chalk Horse Gallery
Opening - 6-8pm Thursday 12 August 2010
94 Cooper Street, Surry Hills, NSW

Dark Gully/Psychic War presents the second solo exhibition from Wallis. The body of work builds on themes that emerged while Wallis undertook residencies in New York, Montreal and Paris in 2009 on the Brett Whiteley Traveling Art Scholarship, and reflects her current sense of isolation living at Dark Gully; an old house nestled in bush above the ocean north of Sydney. The impetus to create was often associated with the unspoken communication and tension between two people, a Psychic War.

Wallis fuses the themes and muted colours of her travels with the reflective memory of the Australian landscape, merging form and impression, terrain and sex, atmosphere and mortality noted in her broad painterly references to Dash Snow, Norman Lindsey and Grace Cossington Smith.

With the thread of landscape, both literal and in the interior life, the works are rich in emotion, colour, line and form, and are inspired by the greater tradition of abstract expressionism. They provide an experience of Wallis’s world, where the act of artistic creation is as vital as the outcome.

Large scale erotic delicate drawings merged with magazine collage offset more heavily rendered paintings. While the painting Trees is carefully assembled, approached like a drawing: one shot, one sitting, brief, and emotive. It is based on Grace Cossington Smiths Trees, a rework of a painting set near to Wallis’ current residence. Present is her overall concern with the language of painting reflecting the land in which she lives, as well as her more psychological interior landscapes.
--

2010-07-30T15:47:00.004+10:00

works in progress

Gareth Sansom at Roslyn Oxley 9

2010-07-17T11:31:00.001+10:00

My mind IS going to be blown when I see this next week. Holy Shit not sure if it gets any better than this.

Go Folks, Go

2010-07-12T13:58:00.006+10:00

no mind. this morning. four paintings three hours. thanks boyd. thanks bonnie and emmett.

Utopian Visions

2010-07-08T21:57:00.001+10:00

Utopian Slumps has been getting a whole lotta press lately, if you want to check it out - see the blog. New Utopian Slumps website also up and a great new spread in Australian Art Collector with some big quotes by yours truly. Yeah Slumps.

To Waitemata Harbour

2010-07-07T08:31:00.001+10:00

I tried to find a brief Witi Ihimaera poem for you but could not. However the wonderous Amanda Maxwell sent me this beautiful poem yesterday by New Zealand poet and writer Sarah Quigley. I think it apt for a painting indeed.
--
To Waitemata Harbour

You have such
clever hands.

You hold the islands
on the tips of your
fingers, lightly so

you never submerge
them. Firmly enough that
they don't float away.

If a person could hold
another person like that -
well, then

there would be only love.

forevers

2010-07-06T20:08:00.004+10:00

endlessly inspired. oh to paint like colin mccahon or arthur boyd. apparently my best friend in primary school lived in a house full of Colin McCahons no wonder I dream of painting like him.
the other artists below are John Pule, George Baldessin and Francis Bacon.
--
i have been reading a book of New Zealand short stories and am reminded of how I am so very moved by the stories of Witi Ihimaera and how much I am inspired by the art and writing of New Zealand. If you haven't read any of his work, please do.

new old

2010-07-06T19:28:00.001+10:00

new work sydney silky succubus, beginning of new work something dark gully and aotearoaish, new old 9'1 board in the stripey background from friends at wilde shapes.

dream

2010-07-06T19:09:00.002+10:00

Amanda and Jonty's amazing house:

Shilo Project in Sydney

2010-06-29T19:09:00.004+10:00

The wonderful Shilo Project, which I am lucky to be part of, opens in Sydney this week as it makes its way around the country. Check it out if your in the hood.

S.H Ervin Gallery
Exhibition dates 2 July – 1 August 2010
National Trust Centre Watson Road, Observatory Hill, The Rocks, Sydney 2000
T: (02) 9258 0173 | W: www.nsw.nationaltrust.org.au
Gallery Hours: Tues-Sun 11am-5pm

2010-06-24T09:18:00.002+10:00

dark gully sex mountain

Worm Mountain

2010-06-16T17:28:00.002+10:00

Amber Wallis, Andy Hutson, Dane Lovett, Jordan Wood, Linda Tegg, Lucy Griggs and Nicola Page.

OPENING 6 - 8pm Wed 23rd June

Worm Mountain is a curated exhibition of new work by emerging artists with a focus on natural history and interactions with nature as explored through seven contemporary arts practices.

Worm Mountain brings together a group of emerging artists who are inspired by various aspects of the natural world to generate work that is highly evolved and visually engaging.

Works are presented across a range of art forms featuring, video, photography, wall drawing, painting, sculpture and mixed media, we have approached the topic of Natural History with unique perspectives and inventive approaches to both subject and media.

Presenting a range of artists who list interaction with nature and the sublime as concerns in their work, manifesting in various forms as, decorative, historical, scientific, sociological and spiritual. The exhibition aims to represent the full spectrum of these concerns as a reflection of Contemporary Art and Natural History.

Wednesday June 23 6:00pm till 8 pm
Sunday July 11, 2010 close
C3 Contemporary Art Space @ the Abbotsford Convent

Abbotsford Convent Foundation
1 St Heliers Street
Abbotsford VIC 3067
Tel: (03) 9415 3600

This is one panel of a triptych that is going in the show.

no secrets

2010-06-16T17:21:00.002+10:00

Melissa Loughnan from Utopian Slumps was at Dark Gully this week. She has posted some images of the Gull, home and studio on the wonderful Internetwork.

2010-06-13T15:27:00.001+10:00

loungeroom paper chaos. work in progress for group show at C3, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne opening 23rd June 2010. details soon.

stokin the vibe eternal

2010-06-05T09:30:00.003+10:00

Forevers. Amy Sillman, Caragh Thuring, Kristen Baker, Gareth Sansom, Mike Kelly, Cy Twombly, Wassily Kandinsky.

Olga Bennett Photography

2010-06-01T07:27:00.008+10:00

Olga Bennett is doing a great project on creative spaces, which will hopefully become a book at some stage. Here is a sneaky peak of some photos she took of me and my studio/home a few weeks ago.

inspiration

2010-05-29T20:11:00.007+10:00

heroes. maybe there is just love, art, music, poetry and writing. i could just post poems after poems after poems. maybe this will be a poetry blog from now on. if i could post entire short stories, i tell you i would. here is a Carol Ann Duffy poem, and a snippet of a Keri Hulme poem/short story. i would like to paint like Keri Hulme writes.

...
Carol Ann Duffy
YOU

Uninvited, the thought of you stayed too late in my head.
so I went to bed, dreaming you hard, hard, woke with your name,
like tears, soft, salt, on my lips, the sound of its bright syllables
like a charm, like a spell.

Falling in love
is glamorous hell: the crouched, parched heart
like a tiger, ready to kill; a flame’s fierce licks under the skin.
into my life, larger than life, you strolled in.

I hid in my ordinary days, in the long grass of routine,
in my camouflage rooms. You sprawled in my gaze,
staring back from anyone’s face, from the shape of a cloud,
from the pining, earth-struck moon which gapes at me

as I open the bedroom door. The curtains stir. There you are
on the bed, like gift, like a touchable dream.

....
Keri Hulme
Tara (the other wing)

(For
all the lonely seas of people
who don't know living till they die)

Here in the afternoon sun, the lesser shafts
stealing through a barier of window/outside
thistlehead demons with bright devil faces
blowing on the silent wind/and inside

still, the stridulation of cicadas gossiping
clicking scandal from powerpole to tree
to holy hilltop rings in my head

I clasp a peach in my hands/while he talks
-It's been bitter he says... the musk of the peach
sweet on my hands...bitter for who?
and deep inside, the cyanide pit.

-You disturb me he says...the peach juice drips
he grips a finger pointed to groin
until blood swells it stiff - I have this this
unthinking ache

I smile at the cream of the joke
my own addition
-the laughter

Wolf Parade video

2010-05-28T07:20:00.003+10:00

Not Amber art related, but about a year ago I was a dancing trout in this great Wolf Parade video made by Matt and Tracy from Holiday Vision Quest. Sweet fun chilly times in Vancouver that night. Tracy did an amazing job making those heads!

Wolf Parade Kissing the beehive from Holiday Vision Quest on Vimeo.

Lost and Found Hotel Room

2010-05-24T08:40:00.000+10:00

I am about to have some work in this great project, which showcases Melbourne artists, designers, musicians and products in a hotel room for three months, you can of course purchase what is in the room. Its called the Lost and Found Hotel Roo m and is part of a one room hotel concept in association with Tourism Victoria. If you subscribe to Lost and Found you can stay there for free! Check it out.

drawing a day complete!

2010-05-20T09:18:00.002+10:00

i have decided to stop posting a drawing a day - ish. one must leave some element of surprise for my upcoming shows. so onward. this picture pretty much sums things up. ripped from eternal sweet times who is livin the dream.

2010-05-19T18:06:00.002+10:00

Why thank you Australia Council for the Arts!
- I received an Artstart grant.

mountains mountains mountains

2010-05-18T15:46:00.003+10:00

quick afternoon collage. mountains mountains mountains. n.america ode. goodtimes had. k. baker and school project-esque. super dig it.

2010-05-16T20:48:00.003+10:00

blank. repetition. again and again and again its all i can do right now. is there meaning in repetition?

2010-05-13T08:33:00.002+10:00

eve. painting in progress.
oh new york. oh love.
ted berrigan extraordinaire:
-
New York's lovely weather hurts my forehead
here where clean snow is sitting, wetly
round my ears, as hand in glove and
head-to-head with Joe, I go reeling
up First Avenue to Klein's. Christmas
is sexy there we feel soft sweaters
and plump rumbled skirts we'd like to try.
It was gloomy being broke today, and baffled
in love: Love why do you always take my heart away?
But then soft snow came sweetly falling down
and head in clouds, feet soaked in mush
I rushed hatless into the white and shining air,
glad to find release in heaven's care.

i didn't do any drawing yesterday. just painted. but i did order these sweet sweet wallpaper murals.

2010-05-11T12:11:00.001+10:00

afternoon painting. back to acrylics. looser. i like this tree (detail).

nice productive morning with some warm up drawings. whiteley odes/dark gully sex/driving/barrenjoey corner.

2010-05-09T13:37:00.001+10:00

collage beginnings. cutting up drawings is exhilarating. loose love black clouds.

drawing a dayish

2010-05-08T20:37:00.003+10:00

been busy. couldn't get a good line today if i tried. so. work in progress painting. a grace cossington smith rework flipped on its side - twill change. geo. billysharks will eat anything.

drawing a day - eleven

2010-05-05T16:39:00.004+10:00

i have been working on this big bugger for months, its been a real struggle, but a bit more work today and i think its close. i think its called Dark Gully/Psychic Wars... maybe solo show title also.... its the vibe right now. meanwhile. drawing slip due to alex morrison loitering in these parts for the Sydney Biennale. i did rework a drawing i did earlier.. a deeper death. scrap heap.

drawing a day - eight

2010-05-02T14:15:00.007+10:00

afternoon odes.

not so stoked. paper to canvas to paper. no magic. wreck. ghost ship/the raft of the medusa. i do like swollen wet paper welts... 'whaddya do? you join the Mothers...'

ABC Arts

2010-04-30T11:20:00.004+10:00

ABC Arts - Utopian Slumps reborn
A really good piece on Utopain Slumps Gallery, the history and new space. I get a nice little section. Not sure how to upload the video yet?

drawing a day - six

2010-04-30T08:55:00.003+10:00

I went to life drawing the other night, first time since 1999.

live the dream, stay free.

2010-04-28T18:40:00.002+10:00

Angelo Fiorillo and I wrote this little bit of sweetness for Kate Moss for her show Momentary Impulses in early 2009, I just reread it, it kind of rules:
...

I cannot destroy that dream
_____

When the dream seemed like a good trip.

When the bohemian vision went beyond four walls and a roof, past the deadened washed out roads of 50’s conservatism and war. They built utopias to stay free.

Along the way they kept the rain off they’re stained glass windows, looms, ponchos, backyard tie-dye buckets and whole earth books. Houses and communities were built, light on money and societal support, nonetheless they drew together to support themselves. They built heavily with their imagination. Light transient structures that facilitated free movement and growth. Appropriating ancestral forms and structures, they made them their very own. Breathed light into an ancient darkness. They built Utopias to create and maintain a supportive collective space. A vibrant non-judgmental critical place in and through which to flourish and grow. It didn't have to be necessarily located in any particular place, it was more a shared state of mind.

But at what point were their ideals abandoned, when did they lose inspiration and give up on the dream?

And like the works of Herman Hesse, the paradoxes never stopped, never stop, coming. The future unknown, the ambiguities and incongruities of the present were as weird and wonderful then as they are now. It's the dream that connects us here and now, now with then. We must not destroy that dream.

This work reflects the fragile necessities that inspire us to face the world less brutally.

Live the dream, stay free.

Peace.

‘is that a real poncho...i mean, Is that a Mexican poncho. Or is that a Sears poncho?’ Frank Zappa, Camarillo Brillo.

drawing a day - four

2010-04-28T18:00:00.004+10:00

see i can do drippy abstract illustration with the rest and only after a few hours painting... easy. harder doing something else tho. does work in progress painting/drawing count in my drawing a
day task? i think so.
been thinking about Shackletons 'fourth man'.
--
penis ghost ship
--

2010-04-27T16:11:00.001+10:00

drawing a day - three

2010-04-27T14:51:00.002+10:00

penis mountains and direct piene rip. she is amazing. what a line. mine a pale comparison - yet ok for my first life like figure drawn in 11 years.

drawing a day - two

2010-04-26T18:17:00.007+10:00

dark gully view. again. ashbery heaven. i fuck mountains. so far. today. in coventry.

drawing a day - one

2010-04-25T09:15:00.002+10:00

isolation prompts strange reaching outs. so here is the second attempt at showing a drawing a day-ish. good, bad, ugly, ongoing, editless.

Oh D.H

2010-04-25T08:57:00.002+10:00

Things men have made with wakened hands, and put soft life into
are awake through years with transferred touch, and go on glowing
for long years.
And for this reason, some old things are lovely
warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them.

- D. H Lawrence

somewhere

2010-04-20T16:59:00.001+10:00

something is beginning.

Territorial Pissings

2010-04-08T19:57:00.004+10:00

TERRITORIAL PISSINGS
Friday April 16 - Saturday May 8 2010
OPENING THURSDAY APRIL 15, 6 – 8PM

SEAN BAILEY
DAN BELL
NATHAN GRAY
MICHELLE HANLIN
MATTHEW HOPKINS
SASKIA LEEK
ROB McHAFFIE
TOBY POLA
TOM POLO
TIM PRICE
MARK RODDA
GEMMA SMITH
MASATO TAKASAKA
JAKE WALKER
AMBER WALLIS

UTOPIAN SLUMPS
Ground Floor, 33 Guildford Lane Melbourne
Hours: Wed – Sat 12 – 6pm
Other times by appointment: +61 403 009 291

Utopian Slumps is pleased to announce the re-launch of the gallery and opening at its new premises in Melbourne’s CBD on Thursday 15 April 2010 with a group exhibition, Territorial Pissings.

Territorial Pissings will bring together fifteen Australian artists to explore the notion of mark-making: with all the glib inferences of the Nirvana song. Surveying territorial pissing as an abject methodology — how the encrustation and infestation of things relates to ownership of space — the exhibition aims to address ironic incarnations of ownership and assertions of ‘property’ in contemporary art. The exhibition will acknowledge both the intense cynicism underpinning this notion, as well as the more complex and indefinable motivations behind mark-making more universally.

Michelle Hanlin’s work explores mark-making as branding, through the iconography of heraldry and grotesque decorative forms; Sean Bailey’s experiments with alternative symbolism similarly question ideas of ownership, though using a much more abstract language; whilst Tom Polo’s practice addresses the visual or objective measures of success and failure in art (and in life, more broadly) by analysing and mocking modern society’s inherent desire to one-up itself.

Accompanying these are Dan Bell’s pseudo-decorative installations of objects and jewelled adornments, which will give a new take on the temporal ownership of space; while Masato Takasaka continues to explore his own interest in the re-framing of existing images to investigate notions of pop-cultural ownership and rock history through the medium of the readymade and his trademark ‘alreadymade’.

The artists brought together in Territorial Pissings will, through their individual practices, make their mark on the new Utopian Slumps premises.

Territorial Pissings will take place at Utopian Slumps, Ground Floor, 33 Guildford Lane Melbourne, from 15 April to 8 May 2010. For further information please contact Melissa Loughnan on +61 403 009 291 or melissa@utopianslumps.com.

Saskia Leek and Rob McHaffie courtesy of Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney
Gemma Smith courtesy of Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney

New Studes II

2010-03-27T09:32:00.004+11:00

New studes without a river running through it..it now has walls, ceiling beams and a lick of paint!

Birthday Press

2010-03-27T08:28:00.002+11:00

Nice to get some press on ones birthday..

Its a World Full of Hurt/Cactus Penis Portal

2010-02-28T10:01:00.010+11:00

Very loosely inspired by Damps 'Its a World Full of Hurt' for the Utopian Slumps publication and relaunch show 'Territorial Pissings'... details soon.

Dark Gully Studio

2009-12-27T21:29:00.005+11:00

I am now based in my new tumbled down, damp studio which sometimes turns into a river. I need a builder. Here is a photo of the space before I moved in.. still full of the old tenants stuff, will repost an image once i make it my own. The river thing hinders the process a little.