Love Freo

I went down to the Bazaar at the Fremantle Arts Center first thing today and was surprised how many people had the same idea. I guess we all wanted to be there in the cooler morning hours, though it wasn’t cool at 9am either. Thankful for the shade of the old trees I wandered around marveling at the beautiful things on sale and enjoying the colourful and arty surrounding. I did end up getting nearly all of my presents, which made my visit not only pleasurable, but also convenient – I much rather do my shopping in the gardens of the Arts Centre than in crowded city malls.

Christmas Shopping at the Fremantle Arts Centre Bazaar

When down there, you should also check out the galleries, where you can escape the heat and admire some amazing pieces. My favourite of the current artists on show is Andrew Nicholls. His detailed drawings are just stunning.

Get Andrew Nicholls' book at the Arts Centre shop

Fremantle Arts Centre
1 Finnerty Street,
Fremantle,
WA 6162.

Ph: (08) 9432 9555‎

At Herdsman Lake (detail) 2009

Irish artist Maria Hildrick is having an opening at the Kidogo Arthouse for her exhibition Bowerbirds and Other Animals on Thursday 3rd of December at 6.30 pm.

It runs from the 4th to the 9 of December, 10 am to 5 pm and you can find more blurb about it here on its FaceBook event page.

I’m posting this for two reasons:

1. It’s an inspired use of a knackered looking fuse box.
2. It’s advertising a Staff Creative exhibition at The Sandcastle Organic Restaurant South Terrace. Work is by the staff and crew, might be interesting, might not.

Blackboard Fuse Box

Love Freo is pleased about being a winner in Corbis’ Creatives Behind the Lens competition, which originated in Europe three years ago and has been held in Australia for the first time. The winning photograph (‘South Beach’) was taken at a hazy early morning down at South Beach last autumn. While the Melbourne Man went for a swim a rainbow appeared in the haze and I was just so glad I had brought my camera. Together with the very few other early morning dog walkers I marveled at this beautiful performance of nature.

The 47 national winners were invited to Sydney, where our work was unveiled at a private view at the Museum of Contemporary Arts last week, followed by a party at one of the best locations in Australia – MCA’s rooftop balcony right at Circular Quay with stunning views over the harbour, Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

Corbis is planning to bring the exhibition to Perth early next year and is looking for interesting locations. I suggested Creatures Loft and Fremantle Arts Centre, but if you have other ideas, please let me know and I’ll forward them.

View all winners here or read an article about the event here.
For prints of the winning photo, please contact us.

It’s Friday 25th September 2009 – the night of the 2009 Fremantle Print Award. The Award is Fremantle Arts Centre’s flagship event and the longest running and largest print prize in the country. Initiated in 1976, the Fremantle Print Award is in its 34th year. Sponsored by Little Creatures it will be a great night out (not only) for Art Lovers. The winners will be announced tonight, the exhibition runs from 26 September to 22 November 2009 and contains 36 works by artists from around Australia. Here are 12 of them:

Fremantle Arts Centre
1 Finnerty Street, Fremantle WA
Event Info Line 9432 9550

The other day I went down to the Freo Prison to check out the current exhibition Captured – black & white photographs by Karin Calvert-Borshoff, taken inside Fremantle Prison. The photographs were taken over several weeks in June 1991, five months before Fremantle Prison closed its gates as WA’s maximum security prison. What struck me was the intimacy of the portraits. The photographer really managed to capture the people’s personality. In her statement she said: I avoided whenever possible being told what the offences of the men being photographed were and therefore avoided having to deal with my own moral judgments. By doing this I attempted to treat the men as individuals, rather than criminals and therefore on a more normal or natural platform.

Exhibition Poster from 1991

Watching an ABC Report About the Prison

Memories of the Prison by Perth People

Pre-tourist Era

Captured: Freo Prison 1991
Exhibition at the Fremantle Prison,
1 The Terrace,
June 16 – September 6, 10am–5pm daily
Admission Free

A collection of new works by some of WA’s finest Aboriginal artists is in it’s final days at the Kidogo Arthouse.

The exhibition closes Tuesday, June 30. Something to do on a rainy day.

Kidogo Arthouse

Louis Kahan is a Western Australian artist, he has an exhibition on at Gallery East until the 28th of June that’s worth a look.

Two Very Different Self Portraits

This is my favorite, The Pianist, it has a touch of futurism about it.

Gallery East,
94 Stirling Highway,
North Fremantle,
WA 6159.

Phone: (+61 8 ) 9336 6231

Gallery Hours:
Tues- Sat: 11am – 5pm
Sun: 2 – 5pm

I went to see Fern Petrie’s exhibition: Remembrances, Collections and Keepsakes while I was wondering around looking at all The Fremantle on the Edge stuff today.

I like the Moores Building as a gallery space because it’s quite a wide open area and you can view pieces from a distance, which is perfect for large canvases like the one below (one of my favourites).  It was based on a cityscape, kind of like a map grid and it had lots of fine detail once you got up close to it.

Overall I would say I’m not a fan I also had a look at some of her older work on her website but I really did like her more abstract canvases that she had on display at this exhibition.

I went in to Fremantle to day to check out the Fremantle on the Edge Exhibition that fellow blogger Izzy talked about in a previous post. It’s not a bad effort overall and I really liked some of the market designs done by the Interior Architecture students featured in the facades on High Street. These were mostly drawings behind glass so they didn’t lend themselves to being photographed but there was a larger exhibit in the old fishmonger shop in Fremantle markets called Intertidal which did.

Intertidal was also designed by the Interior Architecture students, I didn’t quite understand what was going on but I liked the tissue paper covered Ikea lights on the celling. (Izzy incidentally has one of the same lamps in her sitting room minus the tissue paper and it also looks nice.)