How we perceive images and objects and their associated historical meaning has been a central focus of Sanné Mestrom’s practice for several years. Working predominantly in sculpture and painting, her style favours the modernist penchant for clean lines and bold forms and inherently questions how we encounter our cultural landscape.
For CORRECTIONS, Mestrom tilts the focus away from the references to specific modernist images seen in her previous work to encompass how we perceive the human body as a vessel of flaws and limitations. In a series of sculptures, Mestrom uses the malleable materials of concrete and bronze “to create an ode to both the potential and the limitations of matter – in particular to the matter of ourselves – the physical and the metaphysical self, the corporeal and temporal body, the burdensome and the invisible.”
The female body is an integral part of CORRECTIONS, as are the cultural and historical ideals associated with it. “The works embody a range of subtle (and not so subtle) ‘corrections’, interventions and contortions to the figurative sculptural forms, distorting and deforming the figurative elements – at times – to the point of no recognition,” Mestrom explains.
While Mestrom has shifted her thematic focus to the female form, her work still retains a modernist sensibility. A palette of stark white is o set by lashings of black and her sculptural forms are a careful blend of geometric angles clustered with spherical forms, gently recalling the three-dimensional work of Brancusi and Picasso. “In a way, I’m referencing the modernists who were touched by something very profound and ancient. So, I’m just extending that forward. I’m bringing that legacy into the contemporary moment.”
CORRECTIONS
Sanné Mestrom
Sullivan + Strumpf
19 August – 9 September
Past meets present in Leyla Steven’s latest exhibition, now showing at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and co-curated by Artspace. The Australian-Balinese artists adopts a collaborative approach to restitution, scrutinising the systems of conservation and documentation we have inherited.
Developed in 2022 by Artback NT as part of Apmere Mparntwe—the Australian Ceramics Triennale— touring exhibition Clay on Country, showing now at New England Regional Art Museum, showcases the diversity of ceramics in the Central Desert.
About Face is a smart piece of marketing. The new book on portrait painting from Australia and New Zealand has a mission to change buyers’ minds about the field. But as Jane O’Sullivan discovers, any sales pitch wears thin if it’s repeated often enough, and the close attention to how portrait painting is received by the market means that other important conversations fade to the background.
Curated by Lee Kinsella, Stuffed, Bolstered and Upholstered—on now at Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery—looks at how woven and fibre objects align with the human form, encompassing the practices of over thirty artists working across textiles, painting, ceramics, sculpture and installation.
With their iconic painted poker machines and installations, notably featured in the 2020 Biennale of Sydney, the Tennant Creek Brio are now taking over Melbourne with a new show at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.
Heide Museum of Modern Art’s summer blockbuster exhibition is unveiling the breadth and beauty of Italian modernism through design. With over 170 objects spanning sixty years, Molto Bello explores the cultural impact of this period of creativity and invention.
