Tuesday 17 – Saturday 28 July

 

Abstraction's seductive power brings us into the present moment

 

Un:sighted asks that you cast aside the human tendency to live almost exclusively through memory of the past and anticipation of the future, to let go and take time to look deeply. 

 

Un:sighted features abstract works by 6 Melbourne-based artists: Louise Blyton, Tim Gresham, Emma Langridge, Troy Mendham, Lynette Smith and Peter Summers. Through paintings, tapestries, drawings, photographs and installations, these artists demonstrate the seductive power of abstract art to bring our attention to the present moment. 

 

The exhibition title alludes to the difficulty of terms; ‘non-representative’, ‘reductive’, ‘non-objective’, ‘non-relational’, ‘unconstructed’, ‘non-compositional’… and to the myriad pathways of abstraction. It suggests an interest in the limits of the visual, and refers to a kind of blindness in historical writing about abstraction in Australian art.

Each artist invites the viewer to experience subtle deviations in atmosphere. It is possible to find quiet reflection and slow unravelling in Peter Summer's paintings; kinetic stillness in Lynette Smith's large wall installation; hypnotic repetition in Tim Gresham's tapestries & photographs; exacting yet human architectural pattern in Emma Langridge's paintings; electric, unwavering singularity in the neon bright colours of Louise Blyton's oddly shaped corner-wrapping 'paintings';  anti-art, wild-style scratchy line work in Troy Mendham's bark-like unstretched canvasses. Within this collective, all share methods of reduction.

 

Inspiration for these artists comes from the work and the process of working in visual mediums, a strategy that tests the rules of visual language. It's hard for many to abandon the search for literal readings but that's what these artists suggest we do. "There are no invented stories or impossibly cool concepts." What you see has no need for an explanation. If there is one then these artists are not telling. 

 

Exhibition details:

Un:sighted   

Louise Blyton, Tim Gresham, Emma Langridge, Troy Mendham, Lynette Smith, Peter Summers

fortyfivedownstairs

45 Flinders Lane

Melbourne

fortyfivedownstairs.com

Opening: Thursday 19 July 2012, 5-7pm 

Exhibition runs: Tuesday 17 – Saturday 28 July, 2012

Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Thursday: 11am-5pm, Friday: 11am-7pm, Saturday: 12-4pm

Exhibition enquiries: 03 9662 9966, sally@fortyfivedownstairs.com