Surrealism and fantasy will be running wild at The Wollongong City Gallery in the coming weeks with the combination of touring exhibits “Seduction and Subversion” and “Phantasia”
"Gynaeceum" a seductive painting from surrealist James Guppy
A beautiful image from the Phantasia exhibition.
“Seduction and Subversion” a collection of paintings by contemporary Australian surrealist James Guppy will run alongside “Phantasia” a collection of fantastic images by the Australian Centre for Photography. These thematically linked exhibits will create an interesting parallel.
Exhibition Officer, Lousie Brand describes James Guppy as “an incredibly realistic painter who places his subject matter in all kinds of crazy situations, he uses lots of floral images but they’re all set up as quite sexual and seductive images intertwined with figures.”
The second touring exhibition is a collection from The Australian Centre for Photography, entitled “Phantasia”, which she states is an assortment of “all kinds of fantastic images where artists have used costume and tricks of photography to create scenes that you wouldn’t normally come across in everyday life.”
These two exhibitions will be joined by a third exhibition called “White gums and ramoxes”, consisting of a range of beautiful ceramics by father and son duo Merric and Arthur Boyd. This collection was compiled and provided by the Bundanon Trust in Nowra.
She describes it as a unique time for the gallery as normally they wouldn’t have three exhibitions of this size running simultaneously but that it came about due to “Seduction and Subversion” and “Phantasia” being scheduled together because they complemented each other and because this was the only time they could have the Boyd showcase. It makes for an exciting and accessible mix.
This vibrant kind of programming comes at a great time for the gallery as it follows the highly popular “Art Express” showcase. Louise notes that it is advantageous to the gallery to have such an interesting collection of exhibits straight after a surge in numbers as this will hopefully draw more people back to the gallery and allow for a continuance of visitors.
All three of these exhibitions open on Friday the 11th of June at 6:30 pm. All those interested are invited to attend.
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