Matthew Allen
MAR 20 - APR 06, 2024

REQUEST CATALOGUE;

"and lightness only where heaviness follows"
Exhibition 

here 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

SOFT BAROQUE
BMDO
MAJALIS GROUP (AUGUST HUGO + THEODOR NYMARK 
BRUD STUDIA 

REQUEST CATALOGUE;

‘HEAD OVER HEELS’
FEB 13  - MAR 16
Exhibition 

The world is getting smaller. The internet binds us all together - we no longer see ourselves as belonging here or there, but everywhere. There is a privilege to this state of omnipresence, and it prompts us to inhabit and express what shapes our broader sense of belonging. As it is our fifth year, we are approaching the 2025 calendar with a galvanised sense of self, entrenched in our irreverent ways and unapologetic about our perspectives and obsessions.

This show brings together select works from a sporadic cohort of designers, based both locally and internationally, each connected through their robust material and aesthetic preoccupations and their distinctly playful and provocative sensibilities. These are not passive objects destined to disappear into the background and whither into obscurity. While functional, they demand space and attention, validation. These objects are raising our children - replacing our children - loved like children.


Photography by;
Annika Kafcaloudis