Nicola Smith, Ann and her lover, Paris II, 2015, oil on Belgian linen, 40.5 x 50.5cm.
Nicola Smith, ‘On the contrary’ (Simon in the bath), 2016, oil on Belgian linen, 45.5 x 75cm.
Nicola Smith, ‘We went on a whim’ (Ariane at the museum), 2016, oil on Belgian linen, 45.5 x 75cm.
Nicola Smith, Je ti il elle #2, 2015, oil on Belgian linen, 45 x 60 cm.
Nicola Smith, Je ti il elle #13, 2015, oil on belgian linen, 45 x 60 cm.
“I am interested in the relationship between cinema and painting,” the Sydney-based artist explains, specifically, “the affinity the two mediums share, the influence painting has had on the moving image, and, in return, the influence the moving image has had on painting.” It was perhaps inevitable, as a painter who has been working with imagery from films for the last eight years, that Smith would be drawn to Akerman’s oeuvre: the filmmaker was known for her painterly tableaux.
“Chantal Akerman’s mise en scéne and characteristic long takes transport the viewer to the domestic interiors of Dutch genre painter Johannes Vermeer and to the magic realist night scenes painted by René Magritte.”
Akerman’s work has also been described as having an Edward Hopper-esque quality, something that is evident in Smith’s moody paintings too. As in Hopper’s cinematic scenes, her figures seem solitary, even when they aren’t alone. A barely perceptible sense of melan- choly pervades her canvases.
While painting is usually seen as a static medium, and film is all about the moving image, for Smith, painting also has a temporal component. “The process of translating film stills to paint allows me to focus on, and draw out, fleeting moments within the moving image. I am preoccupied with the process of painting, with repetition, and with the passing of time,” she says. “I would like to make a movie someday. It would be a movie about painting. It would be a painting.”
A Whole Night
Nicola Smith
Sarah Cottier Gallery
20 April – 20 May
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Premiering at the Sydney Film Festival, artist, curator and filmmaker Nikki Lam’s The Unshakeable Destiny trilogy, shot on 16mm, Super 8 and digital, explores her hyphenated identity as a “settler-migrant”, through an upbringing in “city-state” Hong Kong and the enduring influence this has over her artistic practice in Australia.
Now showing at HOTA, Writers Revealed is an ambitious exhibition covering six centuries, presenting manuscripts, letters, illustrations and rare editions from many of the most influential authors in English literature.
Wendy Sharpe’s expressive paintings incorporate social criticism and otherworldly dreamscapes, blending the real and imagined. With a current exhibition at Philip Bacon Galleries, she reflects on her three-decade practice and that iconic painting of Magda Szubanski.
The finalist portraits in the biggest Australian art award of the year have been announced, alongside the winner of The Packing Room Prize: Abdul Abdullah for his portrait of fellow artist Jason Phu.
