SILK + SAND - Chinese and Australian Prints

Thirty artists associated with the College of Fine Arts UNSW and Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing exhibit recent prints highlighting the diversity and parallels of printmaking today across two cultures.

As you might expect, the Chinese contingent present some stunning prints in the social realist tradition such as Wu Hong's sensitive red and black portraits of peasants, while local larrikin legend Reg Mombassa delivers a distinctive brand of irreverent Aussie humour.

But SILK + SAND also successfully blurs cultural boundaries. For example, both Jane Fontane and Li Fan tap into the bright, bold, consumerist aesthetic of Pop art. In Fontane's large screenprints children morph into giant toy Transformers. Fan's striking pink and red lithograph of a bawling baby's head has the instant iconic impact of a Warhol portrait.

The 15 Australian artists in SILK + SAND all have a close association wit the College of Fine Arts UNSW (COFA) as either staff, students or participants in COFA's unique custom printing research group, Cicada Press, and include many well know painters Elisabeth Cummings, Euan Macleod and Indigneous artist Michael Nelson Jagamara. The 14 Chinese artists are all staff members at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.

For further information please contact Ivan Dougherty Gallery