Matthew Allen
MAR 20 - APR 06, 2024

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"and lightness only where heaviness follows"
Exhibition 

There is a generous wealth of words to borrow from when it comes to discussing the work of artist Matthew Allen. Many essays and intelligently composed pieces of writing which serve to celebrate and dissect a phenomenal practice which has garnered both critical and commercial acclaim. We too could discuss the cerebral, almost transcendental qualities of his hand-polished graphite panels and painted colour fields; the way they appear to project and store light, movement and energy, absorbing audiences with the concept of their material subjectivity and innate notions of transference. They are truly refined contemporary works deserving of such intellectual investigation.

However, in coming to our craggly vault here on Gertrude Street, what truly excites us about these works is how they draw us in as objects of desire, projecting satisfying gradients of temperature and tone, bewitching us with their suggested tactility like a moth to flame. Almost greedily, we display them here as treasures in our cave, obsessed with their forms and the real sense of life and ‘feeling’ they capture within the space as well as the flickering, bristling environment swirling just beyond our threshold. We revel in the opportunity to position Matthew’s work beyond the clean sanctity of a white-walled institution, recognising in their materiality and in his meticulous process intriguing narratives of tension and echoes of our own love of grit, earthiness and discordance.



Photography by;
Annika Kafcaloudis

FOCUS ON THE ELEMENT OF EARTH
APR 24 - MAY 12, 2025

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Martyn Thompson, Sis Cowie and Sara Birns; FOCUS ON THE ELEMENT OF EARTH brings together the quiet alchemy of these three practices, each exploring the elemental in their own way. This exhibition quietly interrogates the relationship between material and intention, where the hands of the artist meet the unpredictable forces of creation.

Martyn Thompson, in collaboration with The Canberra Glassworks, pushes glass to unexpected extremes, creating vessels and screens that blur the line between fragility and strength. His work hints at the delicate balance between control and surrender.

Sis Cowie’s oil paintings confront the complexities of the female form through cinematic vignettes of fear and surprise, offering a contemplative look at how emotion is shaped by the body and its surroundings. Her works invite a sense of stillness, yet pulse with an undercurrent of raw energy.

Sara Birns, working for the first time with ceramics, brings her oil pastel portraits to life in clay frames that disrupt the boundary between the surreal and the tangible. Drawing inspiration from the Golem myth, her works suggest a quiet animation, where the viewer’s own emotions breathe life into each piece.

Martyn Thompson, Sis Cowie and Sara Birns;  FOCUS ON THE ELEMENT OF EARTH, the material becomes a mediator between intention and transformation, inviting a deeper reflection on the forces that shape both the art and the viewer.