BLAZE 2025

Exhibition Review: Visual Art | Brian Rope

BLAZE I Sophia Childs, Sophie Dumaresq, Gabrielle Hall-Lomax, Emeirely Nucifora-Ryan, Brennan O’Brien, Jessika Spencer

Canberra Contemporary I 8 February – 17 April 2025 

This exhibition is an emerging artists’ showcase. Now in its fifteenth iteration, BLAZE presents diverse voices at the beginnings of their art careers. It exhibits bold and thought-provoking artworks in several media. The artists were chosen based on contributions to the vitality of visual art in the ACT region and their exhibitions over the last eighteen months.

Sophia Childs is showing an assortment of delightful works for which she has sewn together irregular shaped pieces of fabric that she has painted on with acrylic. Most of the resultant works are spread out on the walls much as skins removed from a dead person’s or animal’s body might be. But these are not dead animal skins as the works are brightly multi-colourful and most fascinating to explore. Two of them are attached to recycled timber frames standing on cast plaster feet, further adding to their already substantial interest.

Installation view of work by Sophia Childs in BLAZE 2025 at Canberra Contemporary.
Photo by Brenton McGeachie

Sophie Dumaresq, whose works have been seen in a number of Canberra galleries recently is represented here with just one artwork, but it is rather special - a major mixed media performance piece with mechanical components. This anthropomorphic sculptural-performative shark is a major contribution to the artist’s self-appointed role as spokesperson for sympathy towards the Great White Shark. Those who have had an opportunity to watch whilst the artist is animating the shark would, no doubt, have thoroughly enjoyed the performance and, therefore, appreciated the piece and its message even more.

Gabrielle Hall-Lomax is showing eight framed prints, each having been made from scanned medium-format film. As displayed, they are separated into three groups by two piles of archival letters. Several images show us various immediate family members, including the artist herself, in differing and different poses. Roger’s head is obscured, posing a question as to why. Twins had me wondering whether or not the two figures were actually that or were the one person shown twice. Does the answer matter?

Gabrielle Hall-Lomax 'Roger' 2025, medium format film, scanned and printed on archival cotton rag, 60 x 60 cm. Photo by Brenton McGeachie

Gabrielle Hall-Lomax 'Twins' 2025, medium format film, scanned and printed on archival cotton rag, 60 x 60cm Photo courtesy of the artist

Each of these high-quality images is intriguing. Two of them, respectively titled Eyes and Ring, brought me to a stop as I walked around the space, forcing me to look even more closely and think longer about what they were telling me. The letter piles immediately made me want to rifle through them, closely reading and exploring their contents to discern the relationship to the prints. This is a fine storytelling body of work.

Emeirely Nucifora-Ryan is showing a set of six neon bent glass letter sculptures. They change colour (from warm red to icy argon-mercury blue) and shape as they are viewed from different positions in the gallery. A high voltage light beam dances in the complex forms. This is a further development from her previously exhibited and prize-winning glasswork. 

Brennan O’Brien’s four fastidious paintings explore softness and fluidity. They are works to stand before and enjoy as you absorb their content. His eyes, a blue million miles, painted with acrylic on primed plywood, is particularly surreal, a powerful study to stand before, look closely into, and simply enjoy.

Brennan O'Brien, 'His eyes, a blue million miles' 2024, oil on acrylic primed plywood,160 x 120cm. Photo courtesy of the artist

Wiradjuri woman Jessika Spencer has two works. One is constructed from natural and studio dyed raffia, hair, fishing line and a timber frame; the other from kangaroo bones, raffia and coolamon assemblage. Together they are a wonderful reimagining of country, “a utopia free of the effects of colonisation, capitalism and patriarchy.”

Visitors to this excellent show should read the detailed information about each artist’s works in the room sheet as they move around the gallery exploring and enjoying every exhibited piece.

This review is also available on the author's own blog here.

Kooragang Island & Ngulagambilanha (“On Returning”)

Brian Rope | Mixed Media & Photography

Kooragang Island & Ngulagambilanha (“On Returning”) | James Rhodes & Jessika Spencer

Photo Access | 4 July – 3 August 2024

These two new exhibitions at Photo Access are very different but share something significant. In his Kooragang Island show artist James Rhodes challenges traditional representations of that island’s landscapes, on unceded lands of the Awabakal and Worimi peoples, and invites us to appreciate and respect the delicate balance of its remarkable wetlands’ environment. In Ngulagambilanha, Wiradjuri artist Jessika Spencer intimately shares details of Aboriginal cultural practices and, through them, explores her cultural identity.

Through her varied art forms, Spencer explores her cultural identity. She does this via photography, poetry, writing, activism and both contemporary and traditional weaving. She is a qualified photographer with years of experience in creating visual imagery, collaborating with her local community, and travelling for her artistic work. Here she shares with us her photography and some fibre art pieces. The imagery shows us moments of cultural practices such as ceremonies, weaving and gathering. The photos are straightforward, colourful and pleasing to look at.

An image showing an Aboriginal scarred tree healing in Wiradjuri Country is most pleasing because of the qualities of the light in the area of bushland.

Healing, Wiradjuri Country, 2023, inkjet print © Jessika Spencer

Another shot shows the hands of an Aboriginal matriarch wearing clothing displaying the well-known Aboriginal symbol and holding gathered lemon myrtle.

Matriarch Aunty Helen, Gathering Lemon Myrtle Gumbaynggir Country, 2024, inkjet print © Jessika Spencer

The artist’s two sculptural pieces use contemporary weaving techniques employed by Aboriginal people and are also most pleasing to the eye. One of her phots also shows a piece of weaving.

Ngurra Wall Hanging, NgunnawalNgambri Country, 2023 © Jessika Spencer

For Spencer, being an Aboriginal woman, culture and art go hand in hand. This exhibition reveals something of that to us.

Multidisciplinary artist Rhodes is known for his photomedia, painting and sculpture. In 2022, Rhodes earned a PhD, the subject of which was the meaning of materiality in photographic practice. Currently, he is a lecturer in Photography at The University of Newcastle.

In this exhibition Rhodes combines abstract photography, hand-coloured prints and projection to reveal something of his perception of the world around him. From a distance as I walked into the gallery at Canberra’s centre for photography, film, video, and media arts I wondered where the photography was, but as I moved closer to the first works I saw that the underlying images in them were photographs. Questions I then heard others asking included why are there red crosses over the pictures? Why are they framed with aluminium foil? Why are there differently sized white borders on most of the works, sometimes not on all sides of the pieces?

Speaking with the artist as we stood alongside one of the works ensured I gained some understanding. Photographers who worked with film back in the day very probably marked up their proof sheets for printing with hand-applied coloured grease pencil lines, thus creating a lasting reference. So, Rhodes is incorporating subtle symbols and ambiguous motifs into his works. The use of aluminium foil is an artful reference to the clearing, draining, filling and dredging that significantly impacted the island landscape. His blank white spaces are intended to make us aware of the adjacent areas we cannot see.

The artist’s photos have been overpainted, but they clearly are there. Belle Beasley’s room sheet essay elaborates and is well worth reading after viewing the exhibition – or whilst you are there if you need assistance to interpret the artist’s messages.

Wet Toes, 2024, oil paint and silver gelatin on board with Aluminium © James Rhodes 

Stationary, 2024, oil paint and silver gelatin on board with Aluminium © James Rhodes 

A Slow Evening, 2023, inkjet print -  © James Rhodes

The good news is that the Kooragang Wetlands have progressively been very much restored, redressing the loss of fisheries, shorebirds, threatened species and other wildlife habitat in the Hunter Estuary due to clearing, draining and filling over the past 200 years.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.