Some galleries are really fine, and the area is so large that one can peruse the art works singularly and really absorb the image. Other galleries are makeshift, and the works are bunched up together like a shop store with racks of lollies and foodstuffs to grab on your way out. This was one such exhibition, unfortunately. I was quite unimpressed really, though I could see that the volunteers were ardent in trying to make it the best possible exhibition space possible. With cramped space, and a very small room, they had recently acquired ‘set up ‘walls’ to hang as many works for sale on .
This was definitely not what you would really call an ‘exhibition’ in the usual art gallery professional sense. It was a setup to just sell art. Definitely not easy to savour each art piece individually. No space other than a metre in front of the artwork, and trying not to take in the other artwork beside it by only inches apart. Each artist’s works were lumped together. I think I will have to find another venue where there’s a bit more space. No. A lot more space. I was dismayed, as I had seen Nepean Art Society in years gone by, have larger venues and space. What I saw here was saddening.
When entering the works for bump in, everything was so cramped, and the artist’s line- up went out into the street. Once you entered the doorway, you entered a very, very tiny room where it was barely enough room to hold your work. There was one person behind me , and one person in front of me, in single file, and that’s how much room that little room had. Once we were in to the next room for the actually bump in, an area surrounded by about four tables, arranged as a corner of two desks per side blocked you in from going any further. Your had about a one metre space to work in for the bumping in and signing, then to turn around and keep saying ‘excuse me’, and bumping into people all the way out. This is supposed to be the huge city of Penrith, and the only space available for artists is this appalling situation. What has the world come to when it treats its creatives like this and forces them into ‘rabbit enclosures’ like this!? Something has to be done about this. I will think on this more as time goes on…The volunteers are dealing the best way they know how with the least tools.
The Opening itself was quaint, and of course the room cramped. Perhaps I’m being harsh, and I’m used to being spoilt by much nicer experiences? But no. This situation should not be for artists in a big city like Penrith. This is Nepean Art Society, and the exhibition was more like a school tuck shop space rather than a real life gallery. I felt I was in the country on a country farm where the owner made your scones, milked the cow, ran the farm, and asked ‘the locals’ to put up your works in case any ‘out- of- towners’ might like to buy’.
Casual, nice, quaint, and needing Penrith Council aid and commission Nepean Art Society badly needs help for their artists to exhibit their works in larger venues. Penrith City should be very proud of their artists. But are they…?
Fairy Iris Charm was submitted. The main theme of the displayed artworks were paintings mainly of the bush. I saw some other interesting works which I could see were from young artists- more conceptual, and some of animals, but like Fairy Iris Charm, fell in sharp contrast with bush paintings. The young ones are trying, but can they compete with favoured genres of traditional art rather than conceptual?