Opening Saturday 11 June 2-4pm, Gang Gang Gallery. The third leg of the While the World Waits exhibition of contemporary art by Central West NSW artists opens in Lithgow.
The Arts OutWest curated exhibition showcases some of the region’s most exciting visual artists as they each respond to original music reflecting on the challenging and changing times over the past two years.
“Last year Arts OutWest commissioned 15 Central West songwriters to each write a track reflecting their experiences of 2020. We created a compilation album of original music titled While the World Waits,” said exhibition curator, Arts OutWest’s Steven Cavanagh. “Then we opened the conversation up to visual artists to see what they were feeling.”
The This third leg of the 12 stop, 12 month regional tour officially opens Saturday 11 June 2-4pm with a with a special performance by Lake Cargelligo based musician Adam Kerezy – who features on the original While the World Waits music album with a track ‘Waiting Game’, bringing together art from the eastern and far western side of the Arts OutWest region.
The exhibition will showcase work from across all mediums. You will see painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics, moving image, animation, photography, glass and textiles.
Hampton visual artist Lise Edward and Portland artists Harrie Fasher and Robert Hirschman all feature in the exhibition.
Ms Edwards says of her sculptural work ‘Beneath the Surface’ that the work draws directly from her local environment and reflects the time she has spent there over the pandemic:
“Working with clay, building kilns and firing with wood is a lifestyle for me. I am constantly making and expressing myself with forms in clay. I live on acreage in Hampton, 40 minutes from town. During lockdown I spent a lot of time appreciating the natural forms on my property. Instead of recreating these forms in clay I decided to use them, manipulate them and change them as we humans do all the time.”
Artists featured are: Bridget Thomas (Bathurst), Cate McCarthy (Yetholme), Gemma Clipsham (Bathurst), Gus Armstrong (Rylstone), Harrie Fasher (Portland), Heather Dunn (Bathurst), Heather Vallance (Orange), Helen Carpenter (Grenfell), Hugh McKinnon (orange), Jane Tonks (Orange), Laura Baker (Blayney), Lise Edwards (Lithgow), Henry Simmons and the River Yarners (Bathurst), Robert Hirschmann (Portland), Shani Nottingham (Cowra), Stephan de Wit (Parkes), Timothy Seager (Bathurst), , Steven Cavanagh (Hill End), Christine McMillan (Kandos).
The exhibition will be open Thursdays-Sundays at Gang Gang Gallery until June 26 before moving to the new Mudgee Arts Precinct. The exhibition has already shown in Bathurst and Grenfell and moves to other venues across Blayney, Cabonne, Forbes, Lachlan, Lithgow, Mid-Western Region, Oberon, Orange and Parkes LGAs over the next 12 months.
Image: Lise Edwards ‘Beneath the Surface’ (detail)