Cathy's Art Diary

Colourful exhibition at the Alan Cristea Gallery of new work by Julian Opie. I loved the variety of work in this show although all very typical of Opie. On the ground floor were some lovely landscapes of coastal scenes, digital prints in blocks of colour. These sat alongside six banners of scenes from South Korea. I loved some small sculptures of tower blocks shown in groups of five which were clear and effective with a real sense of the light bouncing off the windows using a limited colour palette. As you headed downstairs you were greeted by a lovely set of relief panels of people on a street with titles based on their accessories such as headphones, cardigan etc. These were shown against relief panels on the wall of people walking in Melbourne. My favourite pieces though were outline portraits which just named the people by their trade such as librarian, mechanic etc. They got across a sense of a look and personality in a minimal number of lines however when you look...

Interesting exhibition at the Alan Christea Gallery of prints by the Russian sculptor Naum Gabo. He started print making when he was sixty and began with wood sawed from a table leg. He focused on twelve images called Opus I-XI of which he made different variants of tone, orientation and texture. It was fascinating to see these different variants and to see what difference colour made to an image. The images themselves had quite a sculptural form. Closed on 12 March 2016