Pink Narcissus exhibition by Rose Turner
December 1-18 2010
December 1-18 2010

Everyone's welcome, so please come along and enjoy the nibbles, drinks, company and music while being the first to peruse the works.As a single Newcastle based parent throughout her daughter’s high school years, Venetia used to teach, lecture, make and write about art, but put these aside to do consistent work that paid the bills. Two years ago (Amelia then in year 10 – 11) rescued all of Venetia’s unfinished work from a damp garage and set about making it clear that she would like to see her mother return to painting. However, it wasn’t until this year when Amelia; using her knowledge of the Renew Newcastle art scene in Newcastle, gathered in her gap year before university & while participating in poetry slams and exhibitions herself, set up an exhibition that anything happened. Then in September she announced triumphantly that she had booked for them both, a gallery – date and place - & Venetia’s hand was forced into production.This collaborative exhibition is the result and is a production about the magic and beauty of the small, intangible, the unseen beauty in the mundane & that which is taken for granted. Work based in and around that which slips between the footpath’s cracks of the Newcastle and surrounding regions.

Art fans are polishing their monocles and adjusting their berets in feverish anticipation of a forthcoming exhibition of my various work. It all goes down from November 3 to 13 at ARThive Gallery Newcastle. The exhibition will also serve as the official launch of my book I Louvre Rock & Roll and many of the items from it's very pages will adorn the gallery. It's an 80 page compendium of my finest gear, featuring illustrations, rock posters, cd covers and comic art dating back to the mid 90s. There's quite a few pieces that haven't seen the light of day for years, and others that have never been seen at all. Plus there's lots of pithy anecdotes from yours truly that will provide you with literally minutes of thigh slapping hilarity.
What's more i have recently cracked out the old paints and am currently creating some brand new canvases of pure molten art gold.
English born Sydney based artist Steven Nuttall practises in a mixture of illustration animation and sculpture art under the name Automaton. Since graduating from his honours year at Sydney Collage of the Arts in 2007 where he studied experimental film and animation, Automaton has gone on to work extensively with illustration and digital media, producing a large series of print works, comics and commercial designs. More recently after returning from world travels Automaton established a full time studio practice where he works late into the night on a mixture of various projects. Some of Automatons latest work includes music video animation, tattoo design, live sketch performance, a series of one off illustration/painting works and new sculpture pieces which have been exhibited in a variety of group shows around Sydney.
Automatons art deals with a wide variety of subject matter however at the core, the work hinges on a deep grounding within Romanticism, Narrative and the concept of the eternal, these themes often manifesting as the many characters of Automatons world. Characterisation comes almost naturally to Automatons art, growing up influenced by a mix of both humorous western comics and confronting eastern anime, Automatons art draws from both of these worlds, while making a conscious effort not to directly references them. The work aims to challenge the viewer by presenting two opposing world within one frame, creating imagery that is both endearing and confronting, colourful yet sparse, and more often than not both humorous and dark.