I live in Mosman, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, and every year the local art gallery invites residents and gallery members to submit work to the Artists of Mosman: 2088 exhibition. I entered last year, but didn’t get in, and I was not surprised – they tend to prefer conservative works involving beaches and puppies and other tame subject matter. This year, however, I was going to pass, but at the last minute on submission day I thought, “what the hell, I’ll put in my uni artworks”.Ā And they got in!! š
Opening night was on Friday the 10th of February, and since I’ve never been to one of Mosman Art Gallery’sĀ openings before, I headed up with my aunt and uncle.
It sure was packed! With more than 200 artworks on display from almost as many artists, a lot of people turned up, and the gallery was the busiest I’ve ever seen it. The aircon was clearly struggling that day – it was right in the middle of Sydney’s recent heatwave – and the number of people filling the small space was no help. It was worse in the un-airconditioned main hall where the speeches were happening, but we got a spot right under a fan where we could nibble sushi and sip free drinks in relative comfort. We couldn’t hear much of the speeches, the guys had terrible mic technique, but they did mention they’d received approval to upgrade the aircon in the gallery space. Good to know… XD
Crowds and aircon aside, the exhibition has a lot to look at. As usual, there isn’t really much in the way of challenging subject matter, but amongst the masses there are a number of artists being shown who have some serious talent. It shocks me a little that my art got in alongside some of them – there were about a hundred other artworks that didn’t make the cut. I’m not a bad artist or anything, but I am fairly early in my art journey, and it kinda blows my mind to be there next to some of the photorealistic paintings etc on display. I’ll probably have to go back for another look at those ones – it was just too crowded on opening night to really take it all in.
And there’s one more really exciting thing – at the time of writing this, I’m told thatĀ one of my artworks has been sold! Woah! So not only is this my first real showing at an art gallery, it’s also my first art sale ever!
Goodbye to my untitled leaf artwork! I just wonder if the buyer knows it’s electronic. When the light levels drop, it starts flashing subtle LED’s and makes a very unsubtle chirping noise. I’ve got some video of it to edit and upload when I get a chance. I wonder if I’ll ever know who the buyer is – I’d love to see their reaction the first time it activates. But since it’s going to be at the gallery for nearly a month, and assuming the lights are turned off every night, I guess the battery might run out before they take it home. Will they replace that battery? Haha who knows, most people just like to look at it.
So that’s my first art showing in a nutshell. Small steps. Finding out my works were accepted was pretty exciting. I’d been having a bad week with my depression til that happened. It’s actually the reason I finally set up my website again, I need to have it in case people want to find out more and stay in touch with me. Sometimes you just need a bit of carrot from the world to get moving. And if my works are actually saleable, wow, I better keep up the hard work! ^_^
Artists of Mosman: 2088 is on display at Mosman Art Gallery fromĀ 11 February – 5 March 2017.
Works Exhibited (Click for Details):
Untitled Electronic Leaf Artwork
Exhibition Cat. No. 77
My Tangle
Exhibition Cat. No. 78