New Modern

RNOP Melbourne - The Road Paintings 

Curated by Billy Gruner and Aaron Martin.
Five Walls

Melbourne

To June 29

Artists including: Pam Aitken (Au) - Tania Alexander (Au) - Wahida Azhari(De) - Steven Baris (USA) - Arvid Boecker (De) - Karin Beyens (Bel) - Louise Blyton (Au) - Christine Boiry (Fr) - Terri Brooks (Au) - Raymond Carter (Au) - Andrew Christofides (Au) - Chanelle Collier (Au) - Deb Covell (UK) - Ivo Ringe (De) - Dombrovska Elena (Ukr) - Mikala Dwyer (Au) - Craig Easton (Ch) - Stuart Fineman (USA) - Robbie Fraser (Auc) - Connie Goldman (USA) - Daniel Gottin (Ch) - Dima Gred (Rus) - Billy Gruner (Au) - Badri Guhubianuri (Ukr) - Andrew Gutteridge (Au) - Alan Hathaway (Uk) - Jose Heerkens (Nd) - PJ Hickman (Au) - Peter Holm (Dk) - Kyle Jenkins (Au) - Jeffrey Cortland Jones (Usa) - Heather Jones (Usa) - Sarah Keighery (Au) - Graham Davis King (Au) - Erdem Kucuk-Koroglu (Tur) - Emma Langridge (Au) - Karin Lind (Dk) - Aaron Martin(Au) - Kate Kate Mackay (Au) - Tarn McLean (Au) - Munira Naqui (Usa) - John Nixon (Au) - Brooke Nixon (Usa) - Roland Orépük (Fr) - Ulla Pedersen (Dk) - Anya Pesce (Au) - Serhiy Popov (Ukr) - Theresa Poulton (Uk) - Marlene Sarroff (Au) - David Schell (Usa) - Karen Schifano (Usa) - Lisa Sharp (Au) - Suzan Shutann (Usa) - Ingela Skytte (Dk) - Jessica Snow (Usa) - Anya Speilman (Usa) - T. Michael Stephens (Usa) - Bogumila Strojna (Fr) - Tiberiy Szilvashi (Ukr) - Masato Takasaka (Au) - Aimee Aimée Terburg (Nd) - Patricia Todarello (Au) - LI Trincere (Usa) - Stu Burke (Uk) - Richard Van der Richard van der Aa (Fr) - lemke van Djik (Nd) - Myroslav Vayda (Ukr) - Ian Wells (Au) - Stephen Stephen L Wickham (Au) - Sebastian Wickeroth (De) - Joe Wilson (Au) - Guido Winkler (Nd) - Douglas Witmar (Usa) - Elke Wohlfahrt (Au) 

Selected images:

Installation Black

Guido Winkler

Richard van der Aa

Avid Boecker

Deb Covell and Christine Boiry

Iemke van Dijk and John Nixon

A great opportunity for those in Melbourne to see current international reductive/non-objective painting.

Roadie Punk Paintings

Billy Gruner, New Work for a Failed System, no’s 8-12, 2017,
Gold Gesso and Acrylic on Wood, 28 x 35 cm x 5 pieces.

Kyle Jenkins, Celare Monochrome Series #9-13, 2017, 

each work acrylic on canvas, 45 x 45 cm.

Roadie Punk Paintings

February 1 – 18

Five Walls Projects, Footscray

Billy Gruner and Kyle Jenkins have worked together since their PhD days and were invited to launch the new project space at Five Walls, a Melbourne gallery committed to reductive art. Symbolically the very first exhibition at Five Walls was also by Jenkins and Gruner.

Gruner refers to his own works and that of his long-time collaborator Jenkins, as Post-Formalist in this 21st Century. Both artists acknowledge a legacy to the Punk and Conceptual Art movements of the 1970s in the exhibition notes. The text goes on to state the seventies was a time of great social unrest and ‘upheaval’ against an established austere conservativism. The London Garbage Strikes under Thatcherism and the later Brixton Riots being two examples.

The materials, ‘sacred’ colour, and use of an articulated architectural line by Gruner in ‘New Work for a Failed System’ reference Gothic icon painting. Celare is Latin for ‘hide’ or ‘to conceal’ and Jenkins', Romanesque ‘Celare Monochrome Series’ refutes definition. Together the works and gallery text suggest a discontent with the current seemingly return to right-wing conservatism. A darkness, perhaps a medieval one as Gruner alludes to, is falling as century old traditions of methods and research post-Renaissance are challenged including the authenticity of science and journalism. ‘The System is Failing’ not only for global culture but for contemporary discourse in abstraction post-20th Century.

The references to pre-Renaissance painting are fitting methodologies for both artists. Historically, many of the Modernist abstractionists including Rothko, researched medieval art as a pathway to Abstraction.

Individually Gruner and Jenkins have shown extensively throughout the world and founded artist project spaces including SNO (Sydney Non Objective) Art. They have also curated and locally collaborated with like minded artists in Europe producing touring group shows of Australian art including ‘Australia – Contemporary Non Objective Art’ held at GKG in Bonn, 2008.

Thanks to Billy Gruner for editing assistance.