Art Express 2016

To continue my arty posts of the past few weeks, this week I bring you Art Express.

Held annually at the Art Gallery of NSW, Art Express highlights the work of outstanding student art from the previous year's HSC courses.

I am always blown away by the creativity and skill displayed by these 17-18 year olds.

Millie Wistow-Martin is from Figtree High School.

Her landscape collages are called Polite Conversation.

I was drawn to the colours and texture of her work

Annalies Crone from SCEGGS painted this landscape, called After the Storm, that caught my eye.

Ode to arte povera by Laura Myers was created using recycled, discarded materials.

Her work represents urban decay in our modern life.

Myers attended Sydney Girls High School.

I loved these sculptural pieces by Anastasia Baldwin.

Suspended inside clear boxes she uses rusted wires, Japanese paper and handmade seaweed paper to create these delicate, fragile underwater shapes. 

Titled Abyssal, Baldwin is from Northern Beaches Secondary College, Freshwater Senior Campus.

Tahlee Hamilton from Narara Valley High School used knitting and porcelain techniques for her work, I like to learn from the past, not 'live' in it.

Rebecca Rego from Holsworthy High School created sculpture by book.

The Secret Life of Books uses second hand books and found objects to recreate bookish scenes, including this one of Roald Dahl's Matilda.

This is a detail from Empt-i-nes(t) by Elysee Ng from North Sydney Girls High School.

I found her artist's statement very moving,

‘Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave and grow old wanting to get back to.’ – John Pearce.

Matilda Maroney from Xavier Catholic College created Progress-ion? an extraordinary journey from natural to man-made.

Riley Ellis from Trinity Grammar School painted an urban setting called As the city sleeps the voyeur gathers vignettes. 

My lack of representation for male artists was not intentional. It was only as I was writing this up tonight that I realised that all the works I was drawn to and photographed were by female artists, except for this one. I was drawn to the play of light and shadow in Ellis' painting. He was very successful in creating a mood and capturing a moment. 

This post is part of Saturday Snapshot