13 NOV > 9 DEC

It’s in the Book. John Downton

MAIN GALLERY

John Downton has lived and worked in the Shoalhaven area for decades. Starting off as a watchmaker he soon gravitated to his passion, art.

After studying with three teachers at the Royal Art Society and then with a private teacher, he spent fifteen years in the bush with Master Artist Leonard Long OAM.

Art has taken him all over the world opening lots of doors and winning many prizes and citations. With a fellow artist, he worked with the Royal Australian Navy in East Timor during the troubled times.
From these varied exciting experiences and meeting many famous people, comes his sensational new book, which will be launched with this exhibition.

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13 NOV > 9 DEC

Simple Alchemy. Marie Lund

FOYER GALLERY

An exhibition of sun-printed photograms of objects from forest and ocean on gelatine/silver coated paper. This ‘printing out process’, where paper is exposed until the image is exposed, has a hundred years of history, yet the process itself gave Marie a great satisfaction and yields images of fascinating tonal texture.

“The most perfect guide is nature. Nature uplifts my spirits.”

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Kaleidoscope of Our Life. Giovanni & Maro Tozzetti

ACCESS & GREEN GALLERIES

Since their first exhibition at the Arts Centre, this creative and colourful couple have travelled extensively living in Italy, Cyprus and Queensland over a three-year period before returning to family and friends in Nowra.

This exhibition is the result of their travels, influenced by people, places, cultures and the different environments. “We have been experiencing the everyday life in quite a different manner. We were not seeing images but living them instead. So you see in our work a real Kaleidoscope.”

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11 DEC > 6 JAN
LAUNCH: SAT 12 DEC 12>2PM

Iconic surfing photographs from the 1960s and ’70s.
John Witzig

MAIN GALLERY

In the 1960s and ’70s, John Witzig had his eye on surfing. He was young and he had his mind wide open. He roamed surfing’s physical and spiritual map, restlessly soaking up the minutiae. With his curiosity and sense of history he chose photographic images to represent a surfing zeitgeist that was so unconscious that it barely had a language. Things were happening and words were not enough. Surfing only had a few meaningful translators then and Witzig was one of them.
In many of his photographs, it’s easy to make out the influence of culture, lifestyle and politics. But even so, the photos themselves are very straightforward. They either depict people who surf or surf-related locations and artifacts. This is never ambiguous even when there is a complete absence of waves and surfboards. Although such a lack may seem strange in a surf photograph, this is an integral part of the Witzig signature and one of the features that defines his work – he had a knack for this type of thing. It wasn’t just that he was good with a camera. His photographs are more than a technical exercise – they are intuitive pieces of art-directed reportage.
Mark Cherry

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11 DEC > 6 JAN
LAUNCH: FRI 12 DEC 12>2PM

Casting Slip, Slip Casting. Reiko Hashimoto

FOYER GALLERY

A recent winner of the Meroogal Women’s Art Prize, Reiko Hashimoto continues her exploration of the diversity of clay forms using slip casting techniques.

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Horse. Group Exhibition

ACCESS GALLERY

The role of the horse has changed over the last couple of centuries from an integral and functional part of everyday life to a more peripheral one. We have less contact with these animals in our modern world and yet they still hold a unique place in our society and our psyche. This diverse exhibition features the work of seven local artists as they explore their responses to this important animal in human society. Exhibiting artists include Alison Chiam, Alison Mackay, Julie Maclachlan, Reiko Hashimoto, Helen Nugent, Vicki Robinson and Cheryl Scowen.

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Shoalhaven Light. John Brown & Ross Mullane

GREEN GALLERY

This exhibition explores light and colour in contemporary landscape and colour field paintings. John Brown was inspired at an early age by Lloyd Ree’s work ‘Road to Berry’ and has been painting his beloved Shoalhaven for 20 years. Ross Mullane uses harmonies and disharmonies of colour to express abstract feelings and thoughts. The blues of the sky and water are starting points, with colours floating on the surface of the works.

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