WED 9 - THURS 24 DEC 2015

Combined opening night Friday 11 December, 6 - 8pm  
with Nanshe studio gallery across the road on Beaumont St

No works over $500 and you will be able to buy work on the day and takeaway from 8pm Friday night.
Works by local emerging and established artists. 

Works in DOUBLE WRAP UP 2015 below
top row - left to right
Lydia Miller, John Sorby, Belinda Street
middle row - left to right
Peter Gardiner, Dino Consalvo, Maria Hine
botton row - left to right
Maggie Hall, John Heaney, Peter Lankas
 

WED 18 NOV - SAT 5 DEC 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 21 November, 2-4pm

To celebrate the end of the first year of Gallery 139, Owner & Director Ahn Wells will be looking for the hidden gems in artist's studios and will be curating a special Director's Choice exhibition. It's been a dream project of Ahn's for a while now to get inside some of her favourite Newcastle artists' studios to find that long lost artwork just waiting to exhibited again or for the first time.

Exhibiting artists: Clare Weeks, Peter Lankas, John Earle, Jason Lowe, Alison Smith, Vicki Gerristen, Barb Nanshe, Peter Gardiner, Paul Maher, Helene Leane, Flynn Doran, Dino Consalvo, Brett Piva, Ros Elkin, Lezlie Tilley, Matthew Tome, Rachel Milne, Simone Darcy, Vera Zulumovski, Linda Swinfield, Susan Ryman, Braddon Snape, Peter Read. 

WED 28 OCT - SAT 14 NOV 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Special Sunday opening, 1 NOV 2-4pm

Houses, hills, parks, people, cars, roads, our coastline and our sea – In this city's side is where you will see the suburbs captured on canvas by Newcastle based artist, Paul Maher. In this city's side starts at Gallery 139 in Hamilton on October 28 and runs until November 14. Maher has been translating suburbia into figurative and landscape paintings for over 30 years and in this new exhibition viewers will be delighted to find many familiar Newcastle scenes captured in Maher's unique and often playful painting and drawing style.

Maher can be found most nights in his home studio, canvas on the ground and a long handled paint brush in hand, making wide painterly gestures across the canvas, painting in the water or making delicate marks that will eventually turn into houses on a hill. His palette is generally made up of muted shades of orange, green, dusty browns and blues, sometimes there is a vibrant ultramarine blue or canary yellow and he will cleverly leave some bare canvas to add another colour change. His people are you and me, the dog is your dog and the kid on the skateboard is your kid. Maher has been drawing from life for so long, that it has now become second-nature to him and it translates directly into his paintings. This commitment to drawing can be found on his studio floor, where you will find piles of journals filled with pencil sketches from as early as the 1990's up to now. In this city's side might be made up of the streets and hills of Newcastle, but the paintings could really be of any coastal Australian city. Novocastrian’s will be familiar with the glasshouse in Maher's “Piano woman” but realistically the houses in this drawing could be from any Australian city, the trees could be from any Australian state and that lonely piano woman could be anyone of us.

While Maher is an artist that paints what is around him, his works reflect a wider Australian conscience. In this city's side is shaping up to be exciting exhibition of paintings, drawings and printmaking,

Paul Maher: Visualising suburbia
By JIM KELLAR | Oct. 23, 2015, 9:30 p.m | www.newcastleherald.com

Suburbia Captured In this city's side
Hunter Lifestyle magazine, Edition 76, October/November 2015 | www.hunterlifestyle.com.au
 

ART: Budding views on Chris Capper's motif
By JILL STOWELL | Nov. 6, 2015, 9 p.m.

NOTHER significant one-man show at the moment finds Paul Maher exploring more deeply the urban landform interface at Bar Beach, leading up to the striking fin of the headland above.

At his last exhibition this was the subject for many paintings in muted colours. Now he takes the subject into more dramatic contrasts with experiments, exploring the potential not only of stronger colour but also using watercolour, etching and even digital print.

In combination with large oil paintings, the suggestion is of work in progress. So too is the introduction of house interiors and figures, including a theatrical woman and grand piano. The inventive blocks of black-outlined houses form an increasingly dramatic contrast to the bare slopes nearer the sea.

Paul Maher used to paint the figure. Populating his chosen landscape has worked so well that he has been selected as a Kilgour Prize finalist.

Female gymnasts and pianists are not the only possible subjects, though they work well in a group of ceramic figurines.

At their best, the works in this exhibition at Gallery 139 until November 14 have a vibrant rhythmic presence, indicating several potential new directions in this persuasive re-imagining of our familiar Newcastle.
 

WED 7 OCT - SAT 24 OCT 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Friday 9 October, 6-8pm

Flynn Doran is an emerging artist, based in Newcastle, Australia and is represented by Gallery 139.  refracted is made up of abstract and impressionistic sculptures and drawings based on Newcastle’s transient built environment.

Flynn's work deals with his fascination and occasional dismay at the transformation of our city’s built environment. His photography, sketches and sculpture reflect a questioning but never cynical view of the impact of the inner city’s transition from muscular industrial landscape to a commercial hub. Inherently architectural, Flynn’s interpretation of Newcastle’s transient skyline skews the visual perspective to create an abstract and impressionistic representation. His sculptures engage not only with the substance of change but also the moment – the scaffolding and gantry that shroud what is yet to emerge and transform the city-scape and our experience of it. Flynn’s creative process involves the repetitive and methodical construction and deconstruction of maquettes to create abstracted forms.

ART: Surprising links
By JILL STOWELL | Oct. 16, 2015, 9:30 p.m.

UNTIL October 24, Gallery 139 has the second solo exhibition from one of its group of regular artists.

Flynn Doran is an interesting choice. His sculpture is resolutely abstract, completely committed to linear form, to balancing acts in welded wire often combined with rust-patinated sheets of iron.

Here is a young artist passionate about three-dimensional structure in its most challenging form. Can he scale these immaculately made table-top works up to monumental size without losing the intimate confidence of the miniature?

Does a promising future extend into architecture? The works in the exhibition all refer to actual Newcastle sites, elaborated in spare, constructivist drawings.

He is one to watch.

WED 16 SEPT - SAT 3 OCT 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 19 Sept, 2 - 4pm

All the works in this exhibition have been inspired by the life and work of Australian artist, Sir William Dobell. The idea for this themed exhibition was inspired by the Scott Bevan book “Bill, The Life of William Dobell” and the social art nights “Paint Like.......” held on a Wednesday night at The ART House in New Lambton that gallery owner, Ahn Wells has attended.

Exhibiting artist: Sally Reynolds, Deb Ansell, Julia Flanagan, Cathrine Greive, Sarah Cockroft, Libby Cusick, Susan Ryman, Priya Joy, Val Watson, Miriam Haynes, Terri Brander, Jemma Clifford, Lynette Bridge, Ashley Whamond, Danny Sky, Julie Batts.

Works peel back layers of culture
By JILL STOWELL | Sept. 25, 2015, 10 p.m. | www.theherald.com.au

GALLERY 139 has an exhibition until October 3, taking the great portrait painter William Dobell as theme. Surprisingly, there were many people willing to make pastiche versions of his famous canvases, no doubt a learning experience, while others seek to comment on his life story, notably Susan Ryman's would-be prophetic version of an early self-portrait.

The most successful works are less literal tributes. Sally Reynolds paints the Wangi foreshore with brio. Libby Cusick has a thoughtful portrait of Barb Nanshe. Lynette Bridge has two small bushland studies.

However, no one attempts the old master glazes or the graceful scumbled surfaces we admire from Dobell's originals.

Poem spoken at the opening 

North of Here as the gusty wind blows and the clouds play musical chairs finding their place Dobell and and Dog watch over as a Storm Approaches . . .

The Boy at the Basin looks over his kettle while A Tired Woman watches over the Scribbly Gum by Bills Boat . . . 

Barb in her Domain

A Portrait of William Dobell after winning the Archibald in 43 . . Fresh after the Storm . . . In his Solace . . .

He watches as The Age of Invisibility has passed . . .

Meanwhile the Passing Storm in Wangi portraits Joshua Smith . . . A Relic of The Strapper . . .

Booragul . . The Life of a painter . . The Lady . . Sir William Dobell smiles . . as he paints his dog into the sky.

By Maggie Hall

works below
top row (L- R) Julia Flanagan, Sarah Cockcroft, Jemma Clifford
bottom row (L- R) Danny Sky, Deb Ansell, Terri Brander

WED 26 AUG - SAT 12 SEPT 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 29 Aug, 2pm

A gallery-curated exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculptures from artists who explore the theme of INSIDE OUTSIDE. 

Artists include: Priya Joy, Gina Ermer, Belinda Street, Dan Nelson, Jeremy Robinson.

AT Gallery 139, also until September 12, an eclectic mix of works invokes indoors and outside. Belinda Street's richly textured paintings are centred on autumn in the Central Highlands. Priya Joy's still lifes and Gina Ermer's cups and saucers weave domestic drama. Jeremy Robinson's precarious fairytale houses provide a sculptural component. - By JILL STOWELL | Sept. 4, 2015, 9:30 p.m. | www.theherald.com.au

Poem spoken at the opening by Maggie Hall

Inside / from / the Outside
Moving text / visual story / life / kept still
Enticing flavour / while the eyes of changing viewers give light a position / a place that may / or may not / have been / when first imagined
We stand still / moving around / this rouletted dance
Setting / grouping / directing . . . Colour that teases erect pink buds beneath slightly opened wetted mouths / hungry for the dish that looks into a crowded room - the want and desire to own the said artists strokes - painted by hand - released only to be hung again in another place
SOLD
Central West to Mirrors Edge / Poppies, Books & Jugs . . .
Apples packed into a Lunch Box Red . . .
In a Garden studied Interior / Kate, Jackson, Henry & Pablo / while Jacqueline studies the Orange . . .
Nightfall / A Tomato moon swamps the Anti Siren / Reassured . . .
North facing Milk Jugs needing a Tyred Swing . . .
In the Dining Room / warm breath / Moving Life / while the Emus Lightness of Step dances across the Back Lane . . .
A Blue Bowl / woven of fabric / Inside / Outside / the Autumn Bird searches for a Father / a Daughter / lost between the Vineyard and Brisbane's Oiled Canvas -
A Meditation to a Feast . .

Written by Maggie Hall in response to the exhibition

images: Emu Swamp Road Study, 2015, Oil on canvas board, 20x20cm (left)
Orange Study, 2015, Oil on canvas board, 20x20cm (right)

SUNDAY 23 AUG - TUESDAY 25 AUGUST 2015
opening Sunday 23 Aug, 2-4pm

Gallery hours for this event 10AM - 4PM

‘Artists for Nepal’ is an exhibition fundraiser occuring at Gallery 139, Beaumont St, Hamilton organised by Newcastle artist Ben Marcus Kenning in conjunction with Newcastle for Nepal to raise funds through the sale of donated art works from a large group of artists from Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne and from various locations overseas. Children's artworks created in response to the earthquakes will also be sent from Nepal to be auctioned to assist in raising funds for the Mitraata Foundation. 100% of proceeds will go directly to the aid effort in Nepal. 
http://www.mitrata.org/#&panel1-1

Newcastle for Nepal will be visiting Lantang, Mustang and the Everest regions of Nepal from October this year to assist those areas which have been most affected by the earthquakes. 
Newcastle for Nepal will be responding to the needs of these communities directly on the ground by empowering and supporting disadvantaged communities in Nepal to create sustainable, community led solutions that address shortages in housing, clean water, education and healthcare.

Ahn Wells, director of Gallery 139, Beaumont Street, Hamilton has generously offered use of her gallery space free of charge to host the event. Thanks Ahn! :D

The opening for the exhibition fundraiser will occur on
Sunday the 23rd of August between 2-4pm
Gallery hours will be 
Sunday 23rd Aug – Tue 25th Aug
10-4pm each day.
Food and wine will be provided with the local Nepalese community providing catering for the opening of the event.

Works will be sold via a silent auction. 
Artworks will be sold to the highest bid on an artwork which is equal to or higher than the reserve price specified by the artist for the work.
Bids can be made in person at Gallery 139 or will be viewable online via facebook, bids can be made by private messaging Newcastle for Nepal at the link shown below
https://www.facebook.com/newcastlefornepal?fref=ts

bidding on works will close at 4pm, Tue 25th Aug.

Individuals whose bids have been successful will be notified via telephone by 4pm Wed 26Aug. 
A list of artworks with the name of the successful bidder will also be made viewable on the ‘Artists for Nepal” event page on facebook by the same time.

So many talented and generous artists have responded to the callout to contribute to this fundraiser. Thank you all so much!

Please pop this event in youre calendar to come and see and maybe bid on some amazing artwork from a great cross section of local, national and international artists to help raise funds for a really important cause.

~  Ben Marcus Kenning

Art for Nepal builds rare mix of support, enthusiasm

By HELEN GREGORY
Aug. 20, 2015, 9:30 p.m. Newcastle Herald

NEPALESE women’s artwork, created in the aftermath of the country’s devastating earthquake, will be the centrepiece of an upcoming Hunter exhibition, which aims to raise funds to help rebuild the developing nation.

The six women’s 12 works will be on display at Hamilton’s Gallery 139 as part of the Artists For Nepal exhibition, which will also feature about 40 donated works from 30 artists from the Hunter, Australia and as far away as Stuttgart.

Kahibah artist Ben Kenning came up with the idea for the exhibition after attending a Newcastle For Nepal fundraising film night in June and meeting one of the organisation’s founders, Justin Bergholcs.

‘‘I’m an artist myself and know lots of artists from within the community and having those sorts of relationships I thought, this is something I can do to help raise funds,’’ Mr Kenning said.

‘‘Most artists have multiple works around and are generous sorts of people, so this is putting those two things together and helping them make a difference.

‘‘In the end, we had so many people wanting to participate we had to turn some away.

‘‘It’s very rare to have this mix of local, national and international artists altogether in one curated exhibition.’’

The works, which include photography, mixed media, paintings and sculptures, will be photographed and posted on Newcastle For Nepal’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Mr Bergholcs said viewers would be asked to post their bid under photographs of the works, similar to a silent auction.

All funds raised will be added to the $12,500 the organisation has already sent to the Mitrataa Foundation, which is empowering and educating Nepali women and children helping with the relief effort.

The foundation recently supplied materials for bamboo shelters and trained people to construct the structures and pass their skills on to others.

WED 5 AUG - SAT 22 AUG 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 8 August, 2pm

Since late 2014, Newcastle artists Dino Consalvo, John Earle and Peter Lankas have been meeting mother nature before she breaks. They have been ritually checking the paper and arranging days in advance when and where they will meet with their paint brushes, canvas' and sketchpads before dawn. They set-up in the low light before the sun raises itself above the far horizon ready to capture in paint the first rays of the day on the edge of the ocean. 

It's a marvellous sight to behold, these three dedicated artists whose painting styles so unique to each artist but whose approach to artmaking is surprisingly similar. Probably the most recognisable name to most readers will be John Earle whose paintings are often so hyper-real that it can be hard to tell if they are, in fact a painting, and not a photograph. This makes Earle a painter with keen eye for detail whose brushes are almost an extension of his body. There is no-nonsense in a John Earle painting. Earle translates the beauty of the landscape in front of him directly onto his canvas with precision and unapologetic accuracy. Peter Lankas on the other hand, is an impressionist. A finalist in last year's prestigious NSW En Plein Air Painting Prize and as we speak one of Lankas' paintings is being considered for a place again in this year's finals. Lankas is a master mark maker, combine this with his astute knowledge and experience with colour theory, his dawn paintings and drawings are transcendent and upon viewing them an almost religious experience. Then there is Dino Consalvo who met Lankas when he returned home to Newcastle in 2012 and started attending Lankas' weekly Life Drawing classes at Newcastle Community Arts Centre. The pair shared a passion for drawing and 'en plein air' and have become firm friends and painting comrades. They have already exhibited night paintings together in 2013 at Art Systems Wickham, another Newcastle gallery. Consalvo's painting style sits somewhere between Earle and Lankas. While his work is highly realistic and certainly demonstrates his draughtsmanship like Earle, in a Consalvo painting, brush strokes and applied paint are left on purpose like Lankas. Consalvo's colour palette is often darker than both Earle and Lankas, his world is dark and moody and one not to messed with.

A new dawn for local artists
Three local artists have brought a series of magical sunrises to life through art.
by Robert Virtue | 5 August, 2015 12:53PM AEST | 1233ABC Newcastle 

Newcastle artist's dawn work on display at Gallery 139
By MARK CONNORS | Aug. 11, 2015, 10:31 a.m. | www.newcastlestar.com.au

Inspiration at first light
By UNA REY | Aug. 14, 2015, 9 p.m. | www.theherald.com.au 

WED 15 JUL - SAT 1 AUG 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 18 July, 2-4pm

This group exhibition explores the different ways pattern making is used by artists.

Exhibiting artists include: Miranda Earle, Bridie Watt, Vicki Gerristen, Andrew Finnie, Jay Muldoon, Lezlie Tilley.

Lezlie Tilley appears courtesy of Brenda May Gallery, Sydney.
 

ARTISTS DON'T TAKE HOLIDAYS 

By UNA REY | July 31, 2015, 9 p.m | Newcastle Herald 

The recognition of pattern in nature has evolutionary value - spot the leopard before it spots you - and its appeal for artists is never out of vogue. Finishing today is Pattern Observation at Gallery 139.

It's a broad category, and a range of visually appealing repetitions feature: Vicki Gerritsen's subtle gouache striations, Jay Muldoon's intricately drawn, quasi-Celtic motifs and Lezlie Tilley's hard-edged, formal cut-outs.

In figurative works such as Andrew Finnie's prints and Bridie Watt's bouquets the en masse impact relies as much on colour as pattern. Almost stealing the show from the stock-room is an early Peter Lankas painting teeming with tropical urban rhythm.

WED 24 JUN - SAT 11 JUL 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 27 June, 2-4pm

Paper is used everyday.  We write on it, print on it, read from it, wrap things up in it, flush it down the toilet even; it's been around since ancient Egypt in the third millennium BC.  Yet, most of us take it for granted even though we are continually reminded of it's precious and transient nature.  

Artists are high consumers of this valuable commodity and manipulate it in such delicate and unusual ways to transform it into priceless pieces of artworks that really are worth much more than we realise.  This exhibition brings together a selection of artists who are using paper in ways that excite our senses and remind us not to take for granted this humble medium.

Artists include: Anne McLaughlin, Anne-Maree Hunter, Rieteka Geursen, Alison Pateman, Chris Byrnes, Laura Wilson.

Party Pics: Out and about in the Hunter; Newcastle Herald 13 July 2015 
Art of Paper exhibition, Gallery 139 Hamilton, June 27 2015: Exhibitors Chris Byrnes, Laura Wilson, Anne-Maree Hunter, Rieteka Geursen, Ahn Wells and Alison. Picture: Darren Pateman

Negative becomes positive

By JILL STOWELL | July 2, 2015, 9 p.m | Newcastle Herald

AT Gallery 139 there is a further inventive group show until July 11 exploring the varied uses of paper.

Printmaker Anne-Maree Hunter has successfully extended her practice into coloured-paper cutouts, reminiscent of Japanese Kabuki performers.

Anne McLaughlin has discovered layered stencils. Laura Wilson reinvents embossing. Alison Pateman creates heritage nostalgia in reduction linocuts. Chris Byrnes photographs through fascinating geometric screens.

Rieteka Geursen makes a welcome reappearance in an amusing study of mother and baby in cut and layered papers and three completely sculptural miniature trees.

WED 3 JUN - SAT 20 JUN 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 6 June, 2pm

FREE ARTIST TALK: Saturday 13 June 2pm

Newcastle's only National Trust listed building, Miss Porter's House provides the basis for Helene Leane's first solo exhibition, Lino & Lace at Gallery 139.

Inspired by the design and use of linoleum floor covering offset by lace as an effeminate decoration after visiting the house in 2014, the artist has since delved into the house's history. It was built in 1909 and was occupied by the Porter Family for over 90 years before it was bequeathed to the National Trust of Australia (NSW) in 1997. The house is a beautiful example of original Edwardian era with stencilled timber ceilings, linoleum and all historical art deco light fittings. It remains the sole residential building in an area that has slowly given way to changes of an evolving commercial city.

With this exhibition, Helene Leane will draw the audience back in time where lino and lace were an integral part in every household. Lino, so useful and practical, didn't seem to be a throw-away object 100 years ago, it was often left on the floor, even if carpet was laid over top. It was also used to line shelves, cupboards and pantries because of its functionality and variety of patterns – some beautiful others garish – that it came in.

Helene has translated the historical patterns of the lino into a series of framed contemporary gouache monotypes, a printmaking process, that mimic the aged floor covering and pay homage to the tones and colours found in Miss Porter's House. These monotype prints have been further extended into acrylic on canvas paintings that delve deeper into the lino pattern formation.

Lace is a decorative material and reflective of a female presence in most Edwardian homes. Lace fabric was kept for future loved ones, used as feature on important clothes or placed between objects and precious furniture. In Lino & Lace, lace doilies are soaked in paint and transferred to the canvas to create delicate images of the lace pattern. They are further manipulated by a photo-transfer process to create bright lace patterns far from the original colour and tone of the fabric.    

This exhibition is a small example of the work this artist can produce and will showcase to audiences Gallery 139's commitment to supporting Helene's overall development as an artist.  

Read Ahn Wells' opening speech here
Read Kerri Smith's review here

Galleries showcase collections

By JILL STOWELL | June 12, 2015, 9 p.m | Newcastle Herald

HELENE Leane's recent work uses patterning and motifs from Miss Porter's House and its trove of well-loved domesticity. Old lino inspires many works, dominating misty monotypes. Lace medallions are impressed into encaustic.

The old house provides rich themes for artists and this is a well-focused exhibition, on view until June 20, from one of the initial group of artists to be specially promoted by Gallery 139.

WED 13 MAY - SAT 30 MAY 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 16 May, 2-4pm

Hometown Advantage is a curated exhibition to showcases the talent of Newcastle art students.  It's aim is to present works from the emerging artists who are currently studying to become Professional Artists.  Students were asked to submit works along with an artist statement and biography in order to be selected for this exhibition.

Students exhibiting are: Jaz Kaelin, Johanna Lynch, Dane Tobias, Jessica Jones, Maddyson Shae Hatton, Lynette Bridge, Lesley Instone, Jess Kellar, Daisy Jarrett, Shelagh Lummis, Jemima Hodge, Deb Ansell, Eloise Genner, Maggie Hall, James Rhodes, Bree Rooney.

Curated by Ahn Wells (gallery director and artist), Clare Weeks (teacher and artist) and Peter Lankas (teacher and artist).

Still much to learn about life

Jill Stowell | May 22, 2015 | Newcastle Herald

SCHEDULED to become a yearly event at Gallery 139 is an exhibition of artmaking by Newcastle-based students.

Some in the present exhibition come from the art schools, including graduate students such as Shelagh Lummis, but others come from dedicated classes at NCAC.

Highlights until May 30 include Bree Rooney's year-long series of tiny daily aquatints, and James Rhodes' huge black and white digital landscape print. Maddyson Hatton has a charming haptic drawing of Sydney Harbour. There are also paintings and ceramics.

WED 22 APR - SAT 9 May 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 25 April, 2pm; the gallery will be closed until the opening event.

The exhibition title Sculptured OUT, refers to the process that the 7 artists undergo to make their work. Forty two Mice, Flynn Doran, Katherine Mahoney, Barb Nanshe and Jeremy Robinson are sculptors, who all use various processes to create their works from moulding clay to soldering iron and casting steel.  While Helene Leane and Alison Smith use tools as printmakers, to sculpt a 'printing plate' to create their monotype and woodcut prints.  

Exhibiting artists include: Flynn Doran, Helene Leane, Barb Nanshe, Katherine Mahoney, 
Jeremy Robinson, Alison Smith and Forty two Mice.

Sculptured OUT is a gallery-curated exhibition.

"From Nanshe I crossed the road to see an exhibition titled “Sculptured Out” at what I would say is Newcastle’s newest gallery, Gallery 139. I recognised instantly the abstracted monotypes of Helene Leane. Flynn Doran’s geometrical steel structures wonderfully brought the industrial into the gallery. His wall mounted assemblages made of painted steel rod proved very successful."
~ Newcastle's Casual Reviewer of Art 

WED 1  - SAT 18 APRIL 2015 

OFFICIAL OPENING: Wednesday 1 April, 5-7pm 

Drawing is fundamental to an artist's development and is often used as a means to progress onto final piece of work.  However, in this exhibition Drawing is the subject matter.  The nine (9) artists involved in this exhibition are all coming from different backgrounds and their drawings are as distinctive and intriguing as their individual art practices.  This is sure to be an exciting 3rd exhibition at Gallery 139.

Artists exhibiting are: Ben Kenning, Caelli-Jo Brooker, Damien Slevin, Judy Henry, John Moroney, Olivia Parsonage, Peter Lankas, Peter Read and Toni Amidy.

Drawing Fine is a gallery curated exhibition. 

images left to right: Caelli Jo Brooker, Ben Kenning, John Moroney, Judy Henry, Damien Slevin, Peter Read, Peter Lankas, Olivia Parsonage, Toni Amidy.

ART: Be prepared to be floored

By JILL STOWELL | April 10, 2015, 10 p.m

- MY first visit to Gallery 139 was to see the third group exhibition, on view until April 18 at the gallery space opened in January by Ahn Wells in Beaumont Street opposite Nanshe.

Wide contacts in the Newcastle art scene and the success of her previous shows ensure that present drawings come from a well-known and eclectic selection of artists.

Some, like Ben Kenning, are instantly familiar. Peter Read's brooding enigmas are always striking. Judy Henry captures exotic landscape with a wiry line. Peter Lankas' brush portraits suggest a casual nonchalance. Olivia Parsonage is a natural illustrator. Caelli Jo Brooker has a new lightness of touch.

Wed 18 MAR - Sat 28 MAR 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 21 March, 2-4pm

For this exhibition, artists were invited to submit works that incorporate words, text or type and/or use or are about books and stories to co-incide with the Newcastle Writers Festival which was on during the exhibition period.  Gallery hours over the NWF were: Friday 20 March 10am - 5pm; Saturday 21 March 12 - 4pm; Sunday 12 - 4pm.

Artists: Clare Weeks, Leslie Duffin, Priya Joy, Patricia Wilson-Adams, Frank Murri, Susan Ryman, John Barnes, Kate Burton, Wayne Thompson, Mal Cannon, Barb Nanshe, Ahn Wells, Peter Read, Johanna Lynch, Varelle Hardy, Meredith Woolnough, Maggie Hall, Gareth Jenkins, Brett Piva, Jane Collins, The Strutt Sisters, Chris Byrnes, Zel Caddey, Hide Kobayashi, Laura Wilson, Shahrzad Groenhout.

Newcastle Writer's Festival 
20 - 22 March 2015

images below (L - R) by: Patricia Wilson-Adams, Susan Ryman, Gareth Jenkins, Chris Byrnes.

WED 18 FEB - SAT 14 MAR 2015

OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 21 Feb, 2pm 

This first exhibition is on now until Saturday 14 March, aptly titled BEGINNINGS brings together a wide range of artists representing a variety of media from painting, printmaking, installation, video, photography and sculpture and is a strong indicator of the quality of future exhibitions the gallery is planning to present.

Exhibiting Artists: Jeremy Robinson, Edwardo Milan, Madeleine Cruise, Gavin Vitullo, Barb Nanshe, Alexander Cooper-Rye, Joanna O'Toole, Pablo Tapia, Joanna Davies, Tim Messiter, Toni Amidy, Priya Joy, Peter Lankas, Leslie Duffin, Natalie Engdahl, Carly Brett, Michelle Brodie, John Turier, Lezlie Tilley, Michaela Swan, Robyn Grey, Braddon Snape, John Earle, Olivia Parsonage, Luke Beezley, The Strutt Sisters, Kes Harper, Maggie Hensel-Brown, Dan Nelson, Simone Darcy, Linda Swinfield, Felicity Howard, Matthew Tome, Chris Byrnes, Laura Wilson, Bridie Watt, Jeorg Lehmann, James Murphy, Clare Weeks, Dan Grey, Anne McLaughlin, Rob Cleworth, Alison Smith, Dane Tobias, Mal Cannon, Ahn Wells, Helene Leane, Meredith Woolnough, Dino Consalvo, Vicki Gerritsen, Debra Byrnes, Andrew Finnie, Susan Ryman, Rachel Milne, Chrissy Cope, Ellie Hannon, Paul Maher, Carolyn McKay, Catherine Tempest, Grant Keene, Flynn Doran, Caelli-Jo Brooker and Fern York.

images below (L - R) by: Peter Lankas, Maggie Hensel-Brown, Priya Joy, Chris Byrnes, Andrew Finnie, Susan Ryman, Alexander Cooper-Rye, Michelle Brodie, Natalie Engdahl, Flynn Doran, Luke Beezley, Barb Nanshe.

ART: Finding a unique identity

By UNA REY | March 6, 2015, 10:30 p.m.

OPENING a gallery anywhere is always a risk, but Ahn Well's Gallery 139 opposite Nanshe in Beaumont Street is well placed for passing foot-traffic. Wells has pulled in lots of old friends (and likely a few new ones), to fill her inaugural exhibition, BEGINNINGS.

This optimistically and literal titled show holds over 70 works, many interesting and mostly small in scale.

A surreal Pablo Tapia from circa 2007 expresses the kind of magic I referred to recently in this column. Rob Cleworth's painted head is intriguing, and I continue to hope Newcastle will see a solo exhibition from the Lake Macquarie curator.

Mathew Tome's diode inspired paintings are consistent but lacking voltage, while Grant Keene's ceramic pun on the teapot is earthy, elegant and witty, offset by Catherine Tempest's striking, linear digital print.