art | Fusebox Design

A few brush strokes

Posted by Alex on May 8, 2012 It’s been a year since Ben Quilty won the 2011 Archibald Prize in Australia for his portrait of fellow artist Margaret Olley. I heard him being interviewed on the radio a while ago, which reminded me to add this wonderful painting to our blog. The colours are just beautiful. Ben has recently spent time in Afghanistan with Australian troops. He spoke of the trauma, the fear, and the damaging...
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Infinite horizons

Posted by Alex on Apr 17, 2012 Infinite Horizons. It sounds a lot like Australia, and a lot like Australian artist Fred Williams. To me Williams is a beautiful link between ‘European’ Australian landscape painting and Indigenous Australian art (see Rover Thomas). We can’t wait to see this exhibition in Melbourne (7 April – 22 July...
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Money: as you’ve never seen it before

Posted by Alex on Apr 5, 2012 Here are some great little paper sculptures by Canadian artist Kristi Malakoff. She painstakingly creates them by folding and pasting the notes from various...
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The Peony Pavilion

Posted by Alex on Mar 13, 2012 This week I am looking forward to the National Ballet of China’s Melbourne performance of The Peony Pavilion. This story of transcendent love set in the last days of the Song Dynasty is often compared to Romeo and Juliette. There’s gardens, dreams, death, exhumation, resurrection, imprisonment and of course eventual happiness. A classic of Chinese literature, it was written by...
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Tableaux d’intimités

Posted by Alex on Mar 5, 2012 Confession time. I can’t resist a peek into other peoples’ homes when the lights are on, before the curtains are drawn. It’s a glimpse into people’s lives. Sometimes it’s sad, sometimes it’s funny. But it’s never boring. So I loved coming across these great photomontages by French artist Anne-Laure Maison. Apparently other people’s houses are an old...
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Ophelia

Posted by Alex on Feb 29, 2012 We’re fans of an etching. I like this whimsical little print Opheile by French artist Valérie Belmokhtar. Dreaming of a melancholy garden full of flowers where ‘a willow grows aslant the brook‘.
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Dandelions

Posted by Alex on Jan 3, 2012 I had to share this installation by German artist Regine Ramseier (which she made as part of the ArToll Summer Lab 2011). It involved the suspension of 2,000 dandelion flowers in a simple white room. Quite beautiful. She hand-picked the flowers, sprayed them with an adhesive and transported them in her car in a specially designed palette before hanging them. In the future I doubt I will ever blow...
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Beauty in a cup

Posted by Alex on Dec 13, 2011 As I browsed through the latest Inside Out magazine this week I stopped on page 89, which was littered with beautiful stuff. All I really want, I thought to myself, is that quiet little piece of pottery in the corner. Sure enough, it was made by Shelley Panton. Last night we popped in to visit her studio in the Melbourne suburb of Middle Park. It was such a joy this morning to sip my coffee from...
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Happy birthday Diego

Posted by Alex on Dec 8, 2011 Today is the birthday of Mexican painter Diego Rivera (1886–1957). And how’s this for a name: Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez. A big name for a big man. The paintings I love the most are the field workers carrying their huge baskets of flowers – so human, so political and so very Mexican. Feliz cumpleaños...
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Rover’s view

Posted by Alex on Dec 2, 2011 If you’ve ever flown over the Australian landscape you might notice it looks a bit like a Rover Thomas painting. It’s vast and empty with little ant tracks cutting across it. I’m not sure if Rover ever flew in a plane, but I suspect he knew a thing or two about his country.
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Wood, if I could

Posted by Alex on Dec 2, 2011 In Australia we have Rosalie Gascoigne’s artwork made from rustic recycled materials and reclaimed timber. In Holland they have furniture and industrial designer Piet Hein Eek. I think, if they’d ever met, they would be able to share stories of splinters and a passion for...
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Otagaki Rengetsu

Posted by Alex on Nov 21, 2011 Today I discovered Japanese waka poet, ceramic artist, calligrapher and painter Ōtagaki Rengetsu (太田垣蓮月). Widowed at quite an early age, she spent much of her life as a Buddhist nun and died in 1875. What she left behind was hauntingly beautiful words, pictures and objects. Her ceramics were decorated with her poetry (in her own distinctive calligraphy). Here’s a little...
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Mural

Posted by Alex on Sep 23, 2011 Here’s a fun mural in New York City by artist Barry McGee. Love the mural, love the photo. Photo: Mike...
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Still winter

Posted by Alex on Aug 19, 2011 Despite trying to convince myself otherwise, it is still winter here by the sea. Photos: Fusebox...
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The man behind Miffy

Posted by Alex on Jun 22, 2011 Eveyone loves Miffy. The iconic little rabbit was created by Dutch artist and designer Dick Bruna in 1955. Bruna has made over 120 picture books, and has designed more than two thousand book covers. At the ripe age of 84, he still works at his studio. Rumour has it, he still draws a picture for his wife Irene everyday. “Each time I draw Miffy, I feel nervous,” he says. “I want...
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Winter trees and cold bones

Posted by Alex on Jun 8, 2011 It is wild weather here today with icy winds blowing straight off Antarctica. Whenever I am icy cold, I think of Egon Schiele. Schiele was an Austrian artist (1890-1918). He was a contemporary of Gustav Klimt and is famous for his figurative drawings. Most of his subjects look a bit hungry and cold: all protrudung bones and hollow eyes. Schiele died of Spanish Influenza at the age of 28 and is...
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Perfect simplicity

Posted by Alex on May 4, 2011 I’m planning to come back in my next life as someone who makes ceramics. Pots, bowls, plates, platters. They’re simple, utilitarian objects and particularly beautiful when made by hand. There is nothing pretentious about a bowl. It holds. It is held. When I see a beautiful piece of ceramic art in an art gallery or museum my heart wants it to escape and be...
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