Final Exhibition Of The Year At Toi Pōneke

Wellington artists Lynsie Austin and Sarah Mortlock are well-accustomed to one another. They have shared a studio at Toi Pōneke since 2005, they are both nearing completion of their Masters of Fine Arts degree at RMIT University in Melbourne, and now they will share Toi Pōneke’s Gallery space to present their work for assessment, and public view.

When entering the gallery, visitors will be greeted by Lynsie’s colourful experiments with paint, entitled Form and Measure. What first look like tall, ornate bar stools prove to be sculptures, deliciously dripping with layers of paint, like multicoloured stalactites.

By immersing and encasing objects in paint, Lynsie investigates what happens when paint moves from the 2D surface of painting into the 3D volume of sculpture. She uses acrylic house paints, which have different applications and associations to the types of paint that are traditionally used by artists.

“The process involves a lot of watching and waiting for paint to dry,” she says. “Although the works do not intentionally represent anything in particular, they still reflect on notions of critical mass, balance and collapse.”

Sarah’s Illusion and Actuality will make visitors look, and look again. When she began her Masters degree, Sarah was mostly focused on two-dimensional painting. Now her work extends to painting three-dimensional objects, which she constructs out of customwood. She also uses perspex in works which play with our sense of perspective.

The viewer will be encouraged to move around the space and discover Sarah’s work from different viewpoints, inviting them to question what they previously saw. She creates subtle perceptual shifts by harnessing light and creating ambiguous surfaces.

“I want to create an uncertainty between the viewer’s visual experience and the actual material qualities of the works. The row of windows at the back of the gallery space will enable me to use the natural light as material to achieve this.”

Form and Measure and Illusion and Actuality will open at 5.30pm on Tuesday 11 December and will run until Friday 21 December at Toi Pōneke Gallery, Wellington Arts Centre, 61 Abel Smith Street.

ENDS

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