​Friday, 31 January 2025
 
Lawson Flats, 4 Sherwood Court, Perth
 
Mirror Image
Curated by Emma Buswell
12 Dec – 1 Feb
 
Twenty-five artists reflect on the mirror as both symbol, metaphor, and object, thinking about the way that the mirror shapes our understanding of identity and power. Lawson Flats is a social club in Boorloo / Perth, and a place of support for artists and creatives. Each summer they invite a guest curator to assemble a Summer Salon exhibition, with work for sale that is commission-free.
 
Featuring new work by Betty Poulsen, Jacob Kotzee, Jess Tan, Jacky Cheng, Ron Bradfield Junior, jess day, Nino Juniper, Tom Blake, Sally Bower, Pascale Giorgi, Nina Raper, Mariaan Pugh, Fiona Harman, Ellen Norrish, John Prince Siddon, Gemma Watson, Tom Freeman, Abdul Rahman-Abdullah, Robyn Jean, Joana Partyka, Carla Adams, Dutzi Objects, Jesse Lee Johns, Rachael Guinness, Claire Bailey.

 ​Friday, 31 Jan, 2025
 
Gian Manik
Third Swamp
2025

In May and June 2024, Gian visited Perth and was confronted by the potential threat posed by the invasive shot hole borer to Perth’s much-loved inner-city sanctuary, Hyde Park. Sentimental about the location and in response to the announcement of the proposed removal of 126 introduced trees in the park, Gian set about capturing the park’s beauty and serenity on canvas. Comprising 30 individual panels, the work is a compendium of the park’s history over several layers - the painting depicts flora that existed pre-settlement, in its early years of planting, its current glorious wonder and speculative future plantings as proposed by a Noongar botanist.  Each panel is 52.5cm x 42cm (including frame) and is individually framed in WA Jarrah.

Gian was selected as last year’s PICA Editions artist and for this commission he created Third Swamp, a large landscape painting made up of 30 panels, each 40 x 50cms each. The work responds to the site of Boodjamooling / Hyde Park, its cultural significance, and also the recent felling of over 100 trees due to the introduced pest, the Shothole Borer.

Gian Manik’s paintings are virtuosic in style, evocative in palette and based on deep research. He is a highly acclaimed painter, combining representation and abstraction on small and large-scale works that vibrate with emotional and compositional intensity.

Born in Perth in 1985, Gian completed a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) at Curtin University in 2007 before moving to Melbourne to complete a Master in Fine Art at Monash University in 2012.

Gian has presented solo exhibitions at Gertrude Glasshouse, Melbourne; Artereal, Sydney; FORM, Perth; Sutton Gallery Melbourne, and Sumer Gallery Auckland NZ. He has presented works in groups shows at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Australian Centre of Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney; and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. 

Gian is represented by Sutton Gallery, Melbourne: https://suttongallery.com.au/artists/gian-manik/
(PICA exhibition catalog, 2025)

I was there to show them to the City of Vincent art collection for possible acquisition into their collection.

Lawson Flats is an elegant, emerald-green pond of coolness on a hot Birak day.

​Thursday, 30 January 2025
 
Tits and Bits
FRINGE WORLD 2025
Curated by Rizzy
At Chinoiserie Carpark Projects
 
This is a tight and juicy little show. At the opening event, Dottey & Odd served up some big baguettes with flavoured knobs of butter for the oral delight of the patrons, which proved very popular. Rizzy’s irreverent grouping of a talented handful of artists came together in unison, and was accompanied by a printed catalog referencing a vintage girly mag, giving big ‘wink-wink ooh-err’ energy. The exhibition was modest in size, but that’s where the modesty ended. There was plenty to gawk at and the sizzle factor was strong.
 
Feat. Olga Cironis, Cherish Marrington, Amanda Bell, Gemma Dodd, Mandy Harwood, Stephen Genovese, Susan Flavell & Rizzy. 

​Wednesday, 29 January 2025
 
Wonderfully Terrible Things
FRINGE WORLD

The program promised “Boundary-pushing entertainment, dark comedy, original music, soaring vocals, and daring feature acts.” And we anticipated good things, knowing that the show had sold out in Adelaide Fringe and had received acclaim and many stars in reviews. The star of the show, Christine Ibrahim, a self-confessed slut and ‘yalla Habibi’ Iranian / Italian, ended her performance with a rendition of Cardi B’s WAP sang operatic style to Mozart's Night Aria from the Magic Flute. It worked, especially when her fellow performers pulled out water pistols and drenched her splayed legs whilst she reached the climax of the song from a daring position on circus ropes in the uppermost reaches of the Speigeltent.

Christine Ibrahim, known as the Cirque Songstress, is praised for her inspired creations and extraordinary vocals. Combining powerful vocals with aerial artistry, Christine has performed at Torture Garden (Japan), Draculas Cabaret, Rouge, Infamous and major festivals such as Adelaide, Melbourne and Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Christine has created a fully self-produced company that blends her powerful vocals with breathtaking aerial acrobatics. Original shows like "Wonderfully Terrible Things" and "Music Speaks" showcase the artistry that has made Christine a standout in the industry.

Sunday, 19 January 2025
 
Perdita Phillips
Collected Habitats
17 Jan – 28 Feb
Ellenbrook Arts
https://fringeworld.com.au/whats_on/collected-habitats-fw2025
 
Stunning exhibition, and one that I had looked forward to so much in the Ellenbrook program. Definitely a hot contender for Visual Arts Award in FRINGE WORLD this year.
 
Experience geo-haunting works from Perdita Phillips, one of Australia’s most deeply-rooted ecological artists in Collected Habitats at Ellenbrook Arts. Phillips draws from over thirty years of attunement to the ecosystems of Western Australia to stage a medley of video installations, sound, photography and three-dimensional works that are linked by strong connections to ecologies of place. The works experiment with the POV of more-than-humans, presenting humans as strange signallers or relegating their presence to the margins. Critical framing of systems of archives, historic and ongoing extractivism and polycrisis are counterposed with the quiet and hidden worlds of others, decentring human agency, with key works addressing the un-forgetting of Australian settler colonial landscapes.
 
Dr Perdita Phillips is a contemporary visual artist/researcher/writer living on Whadjuk Noongar land who is interested in bringing nonhuman worlds into interaction with audiences. Walking and listening are central to her place-based practice. She won the 2023 Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize for video, recently completing the Joondakammer commission for the City of Joondalup, organised and participated in not-so-round tables for Melange at MAC, has artwork featured in three ecoartspace.org international publications and has been awarded two Australia Council Inter-arts residencies. Her 2024 studio practice and ‘rock love’ solo show was supported by DLGSC funding and she is currently a State Library of Victoria Fellow, searching for lithic traces in the archive.

​https://fringeworld.com.au/whats_on/collected-habitats-fw2025

ABOVE: Image taken from Ellenbrook Arts, Perdita Phillips, 2024.