Kai Althoff in New York

Kai Althoff, Untitled (Kibbutzim), 2008-2009,

at Gladstone Gallery, New York.

Copyright Kai Althoff, courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York

Untitled, 2007

Oil, lacquer, tempera and poster on cloth;

38 3/4 x 32 1/2 x 1 5/8 inches (98.4 x 82.6 x 4.1 cm)

Untitled, 2007

Acrylic, oil and dispersion on cloth;

39 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 1 inches (100.3 x 85.1 x 2.5 cm)

Here's an excellent description of the new exhibition by this German Neo Expressionist artist at Gladstone Gallery New York. I have fallen in love with this artist and keep re-discovering his paintingsas an example of many of the elements I am trying to teach my students. However, until now, in my isolation in the land down under, I didn't know that he was also an installation and video artist, let alone a sculptor. I must admit from some of these photos in the New York review in Artnet by Elisabeth Kley that he may also NOT be a sculptor (in my view) and I am not sure that New York is receiving the best of his work. However, I have not seen this exhibition and I am sure that the experience of the environment he has created would be far better than portrayed in these small photographs.

However, if you don't know his paintings, it's worth your while to go on a safari - you'll be well rewarded.

Gallery Galloping, Part 4: Bird on a wire

Images: White Kangaroos; Daddy Dingo and Pups; Marsupial Mouse; all acrylic on Canvas and dated 2009


I was totally captivated by the Art Almanac ad for Trevor Turbo Brown at Rex Livingston's gallery on Flinders Street, featuring "Untitled": the painting of a spectacle wearing toucan-ish, kookaburra striped bird with what looked like Red Indian war feathers gripped in its crossed claws. Well, you'd expect a bird like that to be totally fence sitting, wouldn't you? And so it was, but I wasn't, so I made my way across Taylor Square to be greeted at the door by David's VERY large, barking Weimaraner.

Despite the welcome, I was delighted to see these paintings of strange, possibly Australian but always mischievous animals, so much so that I forgot I was looking at paintings of animals (not my favourite genre) and walked from one to the other with a smile stretched broadly across my face. I loved White Kangaroos; Sea Eagle ; Daddy Dingo and Pups; and Marsupial Mouse (all dated 2009). All of Brown's paintings are as playful in their execution as they are in subject matter, even if the naive style takes some getting used to. The pure gusto with which the paint is applied, the directness of line and garish use of colour channel an uninhibited childhood, where you said precisely what you thought, in the way you wanted to, and then moved on to the next mud pie.

On till 28th March.