News

A belated interview about the show Dark Gully/Psychic War up on the Chalk Horse Blog

New solo show:

Dark Gully/Psychic War

Chalk Horse Gallery
6-8pm Thursday 12 August 2010
94 Cooper Street, Surry HIlls

Dark Gully/Psychic War presents the second solo exhibition from Wallis. The body of work builds on themes that emerged while Wallis undertook residencies in New York, Montreal and Paris in 2009 on the Brett Whiteley Traveling Art Scholarship, and reflects her current sense of isolation living at Dark Gully; an old house nestled in bush above the ocean north of Sydney. The impetus to create was often associated with the unspoken communication and tension between two people, a Psychic War.

Wallis fuses the themes and muted colours of her travels with the reflective memory of the Australian landscape, merging form and impression, terrain and sex, atmosphere and mortality noted in her broad painterly references to Dash Snow, Norman Lindsey and Grace Cossington Smith.

With the thread of landscape, both literal and in the interior life, the works are rich in emotion, colour, line and form, and are inspired by the greater tradition of abstract expressionism. They provide an experience of Wallis’s world, where the act of artistic creation is as vital as the outcome.

Large scale erotic delicate drawings merged with magazine collage offset more heavily rendered paintings. While the painting Trees is carefully assembled, approached like a drawing: one shot, one sitting, brief, and emotive. It is based on Grace Cossington Smiths Trees, a rework of a painting set near to Wallis’ current residence. Present is her overall concern with the language of painting reflecting the land in which she lives, as well as her more psychological interior landscapes.

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Amber Wallis is represented by Utopian Slumps, Melbourne.


Worm Mountain
Amber Wallis, Andy Hutson, Dane Lovett, Jordan Wood, Linda Tegg, Lucy Griggs and Nicola Page.

OPENING 6 – 8pm Wed 23rd June

Worm Mountain is a curated exhibition of new work by emerging artists with a focus on natural history and interactions with nature as explored through seven contemporary arts practices.

Worm Mountain brings together a group of emerging artists who are inspired by various aspects of the natural world to generate work that is highly evolved and visually engaging.

Works are presented across a range of art forms featuring, video, photography, wall drawing, painting, sculpture and mixed media, we have approached the topic of Natural History with unique perspectives and inventive approaches to both subject and media.

Presenting a range of artists who list interaction with nature and the sublime as concerns in their work, manifesting in various forms as, decorative, historical, scientific, sociological and spiritual. The exhibition aims to represent the full spectrum of these concerns as a reflection of Contemporary Art and Natural History.

Wednesday June 23 6:00pm till 8 pm
Sunday July 11, 2010 close
C3 Contemporary Art Space @ the Abbotsford Convent
Abbotsford Convent Foundation
1 St Heliers Street
Abbotsford VIC 3067
Tel: (03) 9415 3600

I am about to have some work in this great project, which showcases Melbourne artists, designers, musicians and products in a hotel room for three months, you can of course purchase what is in the room. Its called the Lost and Found Hotel Room and is part of a one room hotel concept in association with Tourism Victoria. If you subscribe to Lost and Found you can stay there for free! Check it out.

I received an Artstart grant from The Australia Council for the Arts. YAY.