Seize your last chance this weekend to see Where Art Meets Life, the Illawarra Association for the Visual Arts (IAVA) exhibition at Project Contemporary Artspace.
“It’s a lovely theme and every artist can really embrace it – because we are all impacted by what’s around us," artist Karen Heffernan said at the exhibition launch on August 15.
"Whether you’re looking purely at beauty, looking at touching and feeling textures, or you’re very concerned with the world in which we live, it’s very relevant.”
Founded in 2010, IAVA is a professional association that provides opportunities for local artists through organising, curating and publicising exhibitions. This is the group's 15th year of exhibiting at Project Contemporary Artspace and 19 artists are featured in Where Art Meets Life, including founding IAVA members Judy Bourke and Liz Jeneid.
“When we first started off, Viva La Gong was happening and there was a space in Keira Street at the entrance of what is now the GPT building," Judy said in her opening night address.
"It was a vestibule where you went up in the lift, but we didn’t have access to the lift. So we started setting up lights and hanging systems in there, right at the bus stop – the doors were closed all the time but we left the lights on and we sold thousands of dollars worth of work. We had eight exhibitions there before we came to Project [Contemporary Artspace].
“Some of the best works from the Illawarra are here. It's new work, it's contemporary work, and it's from here! You get to support the small industry of the visual arts and the cultural industries in the Illawarra."
The current exhibition features diverse works, from sculpture and ceramics to mixed media and drawing, still-life to printmaking and paintings.
Artist Julie Nash – who curated the show with the help of Moira Kirkwood and Paola Birac – said her work was inspired by a small pocket of woodland near Lake Illawarra, near her home in Dapto.
“My drawings have a real environmental message behind them," Julie said. "Using the botanical illustrations from the environment and insects that you see in them, there’s a real message about the destruction of the environment.
“There are tiny fragments of these forests left, that get quite neglected. People walk through them and most of them have been demolished because of urban sprawl.”
Julie has drawn a variety of native species.
“In summer, the cicadas come out in droves, and you can see the red gum tree that’s found in the woodland. There are these stink bugs that come out on the marina, and the blue-banded bees with prickly leaf paperbark. You can see the axes and the saw blade and there’s no colour in the leaves because most of the forest has been cut down.”
Artist Karen Heffernan is a retired visual arts teacher who worked across the Illawarra for 36 years. Her artwork is inspired by the rich character and abstract forms of trees. She used the same basic Bic pen used at school to create three drawings for this exhibition.
“There’s a sense of mystery about the simplest thing which you often overlook," Karen said. "People walk down the road and they don’t stop and look at the trees, but they’re beautiful.
“I turn my trees into something that has a representation of something living, an animal or even a human. I love looking at things that are textured. There’s something beautiful about a tree with history, it’s like how your body ages.
“I see a lot in the media about ageing – ‘should you do this or do that? How do I stay young?’ and I look at trees and I think they age gracefully. That’s what we should be doing, not getting caught up with societal expectations. So this tree is a reflection of me as I move on to my next layer of life after education. These trees have such a narrative, and that’s where I come from – where life meets art.”
IAVA's Where Art Meets Life exhibition is on until August 24 at Project Contemporary Artspace, open 11am-5pm from Wednesday to Friday, and 12-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
The 19 featured artists are: Paola Birac, Judy Bourke, Julie Donnelly, Jack Draper, Alannah Dreise, Marg Dubowski, Gail Etheredge, Joan Harvey, Karen Heffernan, Josephine Hill, Liz Jeneid, Lynne Johns, Moira Kirkwood, Susan McAlister, Julie Nash, Rei Sato, Lara Seresin, Betty Mayhew and Mary Wingrave.
