Utopia Art Sydney

Join us in the gallery on Saturday and enjoy the exhibition and a few treats in the stockroom.

If you want the full picture, then join me in the gallery Saturday afternoon and see what’s really going on. New Horizons illustrated is half of DNA, and a work on paper from the New Horizons series.

New Horizons - come and see the view through the eyes of an artist with a very keen perspective. catalogue available via link in bio with a telling essay by Coby Edgar

New Horizons now on view featuring paintings on canvas and paper that will delight anyone who enjoys and appreciates the art of painting. Come and see what ‘a box of paints, a few old brushes and a steady hand’ can conjure. ‘Painting is magic’.

The mural on the Papunya School wall in 1971 was a collaboration between a white school teacher, Geoffrey Bardon, and a group of Indigenous painters led by Kaapa Mpetyane Tjampitjinpa. This was the first time indigenous imagery entered the school precinct and the was the beginning of Australia’s longest continuous art movement, the Papunya Tula Artists. Bardon wanted the Indigenous children to have something from their culture inside the school grounds and the painting of this mural was a defining moment in the history of Australian Art. Today in NAIDOC WEEK we celebrate the Papunya Tula Artists, who we have proudly represented since 1988

It’s great to see the PM sporting a Ray James Tjangala tie for NAIDOC WEEK. Such visible support sends a message to us all.

“I love paper” says Christopher Hodges “When I use paper, it’s different”

Hodges has been working on paper his whole career. In New Horizons we see new  impacts; “it’s different” says Hodges “not less than canvas, different” 

Paper has a certain feel. It’s the structure of the paper. The way the grain runs. The way it absorbs paint. Allows paint to flow. It’s the surface, feel, combination of layers of pigment and the intimate scale.

Many Hodges’ paper works would not be possible on canvas. There’s unique interior light only paper allows. Luminosity.

“Of course” Hodges says “I’ve got (and used) hundreds of little books, sketch books, drawing books where I work out things. Not works of art. Concepts, vision, thoughts, studies.”

“But it’s how I get to the real deal. All those ideas; all that thinking; but when it comes down to putting paint onto paper, the work has begun.” 

Angus Nivison, in the last show at Utopia, used paper. Extensively. Big  swatches. Deep dark color; Angus’s rumination on the land. 

Hodges is a polar opposite.

He uses color and paper in bands and with interior light. It’s ochres and contrasts. It shimmers. It’s inland Australia. Expansive. Open.  

Same medium. Different outcome. The continuing genius and wonder of art and artists.

New Horizons. Now on view at Utopia Art Sydney Image Angus Nivison & Christopher Hodges

Helen Eager is coming up September/October at Uropia Art Sydney and will be in The Dobell Drawing Biennial at the AGNSW September-January and show at NERAM November-February.

Celebrating NAIDOC WEEK with two great paintings now on show in the Wynne Prize at the AGNSW. B***y West Tjupurrula and John West Tjupurrula from the iconic Papunya Tula Artists, founders of the western desert art movement.

One day, several years ago, Christopher Hodges bought an Otto Pareroultja painting . Otto was a strong Hermannsburg painter.

“Instantly, it took me back to 1988. First encounters with indigenous artists. A long engagement with the Central Desert.” Hodges reflected “This one painting struck a deep chord. It aligned with work I was already doing”  

Otto’s paintings have mountain ranges pulsing with life (plus staples like gum trees and watery, gauzy, mid-century feel) Otto’s mountains are constructed by ruched, scrunched surfaces. Waves and ripples build a structure. Mountains. They are raw textured. Not smooth.

Artists  build on legacy. 

Looking at Otto, Hodges was aware of their similar concerns, structure, texture, depth. The arch practitioner of abstraction, now saw where a single line segmented blocks of upper and lower color, went to work on how to change key lines and colors and light to create much different impact. Something you could now read as landscape. 

Hodges nodded to Otto and Hermannsburg then went down his own path. There are shafts of light, modulated texture in stroke, bands and elements of color moved up, down, around. Paintings were chunked up. Then smoothed.

It was new territory. But the outcome? 

New, immensely powerful paintings that show Australia to us in an explicitly fresh way.

Comes see New Horizons. Continuing through July.

It’s a chance to reflect on all those great Ingenious artists that have come before and those still making their mark today, and the enormous contribution they have made to the cultural richness of our lives.

Double Header in Waterloo today Darren Knight Gallery is just down the block and having an opening today too. So catch two exciting openings today.

“I love painting” says Christopher Hodges “I live for it”

Hodges’ recent paintings are spare, focused, direct. There’s immense control, “I want the paintings to speak for themselves ” says Hodges “I wanted, needed, now have, even more command of technique, paint, medium, than ten years ago”  

Half of Hodges’ New Horizons exhibition uses bars of color. With multiple reverberations.

Paintings have broad or thin stripes. Then, inside each individual horizontal color bar, you grasp there’s many strokes of paint. They vary depth, intensity, width of stroke, color, hue: across each bar, across each painting. 

Vertical light shafts appear. They run down, and through, the acrosswise bands of paint.Or seem to.  Light background color clouds run, intermingled, beyond and around, the bars of paint.

Only an artist  of much experience and deep thought can produce this set of effects, or wield them properly; “I just want everyone to feel what I can see in Australia. So I use abstraction. I use landscape”

“Still these new works are only me working with a box of paints, some old brushes, and a steady hand.” Hodges laughs. Perhaps. But the last words are the key.

“I paint because there is magic in painting” NEW HORIZONS opens Saturday 3-5

What is color? What does it mean to a painting? Can a colour be a place? 

What is it, exactly, that makes colours sa, contemplative, skeptical? Others joyful?  Christopher Hodges painting asks those questions in his New Horizons. 

Hodges’ yellow on ‘Black Mountain Yellow Sky’ is eerie. Intense. With orangey bits coming through. The black of his mountain shades to purpley blue. It’s a huge picture. Strong. Bold. Work that comes directly at you. 

And see the painting, you immediately think, “yeah this is Australia, somewhere” (even if you can’t quite name where).  

Why?  Those colors. How they contrast strongly. Linger in the mind. Evoke memory we all have. That tough line defining the colors. Shaping the Mountain.

Go through Hodges’ other works in this show. Each hits differently. Each’s color selection is equally narrow. Totally specific. Definite. The artist showing you how to respond emotionally. 

Hodges has more control and focus in this exhibition than ever before. He’s going for it. Putting up big work. As abstraction that punches. As landscape. There’s power in every work. 

It’s all linked conceptually. 

Hodges is using colour; purple, blue, lavender, rust, pink; like no one else; shaping our response; telling us: look, look hard; here is Australia. This is our art today.

New Horizons. Opening tomorrow. Saturday

The central feature that Christopher Hodges’ show, New Horizons, revolves around. Is about. The Line.

A line that divides two blocks of color. Abstraction. A Line that divides and makes us see; a Landscape. A landscape that could exist. Or, is totally imaginary. In any case, a line that shows us a new world. 

Lines that run across a work. They could be stripes. Maybe they evoke a flag. Remind us of painters who used stripes, Jasper Johns, Sean Scully say. 

Or, these lines that run across works, could be lines of landscape. They seem to advance at us as we stand looking. Lines that throb with color. These lines are from a restricted deliberate palette. They have internal variations that open possibilities. There’s thicker lines, mismatched lines, subtler colors that make oscillations appear and disappear.

Side by side they sit with works that use color and Line to generate a deliberate image in the mind of a scene, somewhere; it could only be Australia. It’s the way the artist’s line controls the block of color. How it delineates the elements of the work.

These are paintings that evoke many conflicting thoughts about art itself. How we see things. How we understand color and shape and form. And lines. Always the Line.

It’s spare. It’s tough. It’s beautiful

New Horizons opens Saturday.

Australia is diverse and the pictures that represent our national identity are divisive. An entry point to understanding often depends on the life experience and upbringing of the viewer. Papunya artists, for example, were originally seen as abstractionists when their work was viewed internationally. The meaning in their paintings was unreadable to those not from that cultural background or with no understanding of Western desert culture. I guess that’s what happens in reverse for me when I look at some early European depictions of Australian landscapes. Somewhere in the middle is a cluster of artists that I do love. Joan Ross, Arthur Boyd, Ben Quilty, Tony Tuckson to name very few… And of course, Christopher Hodges. The difference is the way his works make me feel. When I engage with his paintings my body recognises something in them. I feel like I have been there, he has been there, and we felt the same thing. It’s not that I am seeing the landscape through his eyes, rather that we are experiencing the same emotions and sensations from the same places. Imagine if we could all learn to feel the same way about this Country. Extract from an essay by Coby Edgar accompanying Christopher Hodges exhibition New Horizons opening Saturday

New Directions opens Saturday. Join the artist from 3-5 to celebrate his latest paintings. Installation in progress today.

Spotted on route to Japan by a fan, in the magazine with a story by about the new show at

Opening this Saturday Christopher Hodges . New Horizons . Paintings with a view.

Don’t miss John R Walker’s big landscape in the Salon The artist is captured beautifully here with his work. Thanks to a keen supporter for the snap. Don’t miss on view now.

Read all about it in John McDonald’s review of the Salon in Spectrum today. Mantua Nangala and John R Walker are in this always enjoyable exhibition now on at the SH Ervin Gallery. .net.au

LAST DAY to experience the delight of Angus Nivison’s UNDERCURRENT and a chance to maybe even meet the artist. Saturday 10-5.

Last Days to see the wonder and depth in Angus Nivison’s entrancing paintings. Don’t miss this opportunity.

Get into the detail of Angus Nivison’s paintings, but only till Saturday. Don’t miss these beautiful works.

Angus Nivison is in the gallery today!
In Walcha Angus Nivision knows everyone. He knows his country’s constant cycles of life and death. On people. On the Land itself.

His trademarks are brooding blacks and dark groups of colors. These reflect inner personal  dialogue; now also, overwhelming realization about climate change. 

They layer in on top of what he’s seen around him forever. What he’s felt from the wider, more challenged world.

A decade ago his father died. Working out grief in paint, Angus’s next show was full of even more somber, highly charged, almost anguished colors. 

Yet amongst his blacks, greys, dark blues; are always splashes, lines, points of bright open color. Some to contrast, some to tantalize, some to highlight, some to show hope. 

In our show at Utopia, moons are seen. Solar systems are in play. Circles (small or  large) are optimistic. There is depth. Brushwork is always sweeping, the hand is clear, the mark-making expressive. Angus is in control. 

His are paintings of what has been. The premonition of what may come. They remind us; painting and art is not one and done, lovely to look at, that’s all folks.

Art matters because it gives us intelligence, complexity, emotion, layers of meaning.

Angus Nivision’s paintings always matter.

If you want to learn how goats made the landscape head to the this Sunday afternoon and hear John R Walker’s explanation. always exciting to visit what the trustees pass over.

“Some part of every Nivison painting reflects the land he lives on..
“We are a highly urbanised country but our imagination is formed by the life and movement of the country. Living outside the major cities, Angus sees and feels the forces present in the land but more importantly, he is perceptive to it. Angus is able to capture the raw power of nature and the side of humanity that must endure.”
“These are slow works. The paintings on canvas and paper deserve time to absorb them. It’s the colour, the depth, the delicacy of his ideas; the integration of every element that comes together so beautifully”.
“Undercurrent is an exhibition where a mature and sophisticated artist working at the peak of their powers, explores the world. Meet the artist in the gallery this Saturday.

Meet the artist. Angus Nivison is in the gallery this Saturday. Don’t miss this opportunity to see UNDERCURRENT with the maestro. 10-5 this Saturday only.

Marea Gazzard was a very special person. She was an artist with a very clear and refined sensibility who over a lifetime of work established an international reputation for her reductive, essential forms in clay. Her work is widely collected and exhibited.

Marea Gazzard has been acknowledged for her enormous contribution to art in Australia becoming a Member of the Order of Australia in 1979.

Beyond her own art she was an advocate for the dismantling of the art vs craft divide. Gazzard dedicated herself to the promotion of Australian Craft and in 1970 she was elected Director of the World Craft Council, in 1972 Vice President for the World Craft Council in Asia.

In 1973 Marea became the inaugural Chair of the Australia Council Craft Board. In 1980 she was the first elected president of the WCC, and in 1982 she was appointed to the Australian National Commission of UNESCO.

Throughout this demanding period she travelled widely encouraging governments and arts bodies to recognise that people working in clay, fibre, wood or precious metal ‘crafts’ could be artists too. Her advocacy on behalf of others and her generous spirit forged long friendship with artists across Australia and around the world.

Marea was Australian, but she became an artist of the world. Her roots went back to the Greek Islands, and she had a long engagement with the iconic human made and natural forms of the Mediterranean.

Gazzard’s studies at The National Art School in Sydney, the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London and studio practice in Canada underpinned her practice.
Part 1 of an essay in Ceramics Art+Perception #122 written by Brett Stone and Christopher Hodges. Marea Gazzard : Utopia Art Sydney. Out now. +perception

Gallery A was one of the most important art galleries in Australia for a  long time in the 60/70s/early 80’s. Ann Lewis, Sydney Director, huge in Sydney’s art world. 

Ann showed hard edged abstract art early. She built careers. Picked talent. Built a roster of art’s who’s who. She brought such fresh contemporary art to Australia it was just being argued about in the New York of the day. She was on MoMA’s international Board. 

Lewis was strong, astute. And in his twenties, Angus Nivison, still a fresh faced kid really, barely out of art school, was picked amongst Gallery A’s existing art stars and veterans to show there. 

“I’m not sure why. She saw something” Angus says. He showed amongst people like Ralph Balson, Rosalie Gascoigne, Frank Hinder, Peter Kennedy, Rosalie Gasgione. Artists who created the story and legacy of Australian art.

Ann made sure every sophisticated art collector came to Paddington for Gallery A art. And Angus.

So early, 1982, Angus was noted. 

You can trace today’s paintings in Undercurrent, to that moment. Same hand. Same color. Same touch. Obviously he’s matured. Embraced new ideas, learnt from life. Has bigger ideas. Shows us what he’s seen. His concerns.

But that early spotlight from one of the greats? Recognition of what was in front of us then and now. A portentous signal; watch this artist. Watch Angus.