Opening Night Friday November 4th 6-8pm
Native is an exhibition featuring new work by Ben Foster and Madeline Young. Each artist will create a series of work inspired by Australian Natives. The structure, pattern and sculptural qualities of these plants play a large part in shaping the work of both artists.
Ben Foster, Scribbly Gum I, woodblock print and aerosol paint on paper, 2016
Ben Foster takes inspiration from patterning, repetition, immersive process and a colour palette drawn from objects in transition.
20 minutes after sunset. Cloud-filtered sunlight after storms. Frost-bitten new growth. A change in wind direction. Marks made on human surfaces by chemistry and biological agents.
This exhibition links the wild patterned and iconic scribbly gum markings of the Ogmograptis scribula moth larvae to industrial fabrication and printmaking processes.
A series of process-driven artworks explores moth larvae tracks using digitisation, laser cutting and CNC routing to reproduce and reinterpret these patterns through a high tech lens. The resulting artifacts then are used to create works using traditional woodblock technique, stenciling and mosaic relief patterns.
Over the past decade Ben has created large scale public works and intricate stenciled forms using analogue methods. This series provides him with an opportunity to depart from the confines of hand cut layering and experiment with the patterning using emerging fabrication techniques.
Ben has been a part of a number of group exhibitions in Newcastle at ArtHive, created murals for This Is Not Art Festival and the Street Arrt Walking project, as well as contributing to Paste Modernism 3 at Cockatoo Island. Ben's work was chosen to form part of the Works With Quirk exhibition of young artists at Maitland Regional Art Gallery in 2011. His last street mural project was for the Back Alley Gallery in Lismore, 2013. He had his first solo exhibition at The Corner Store Gallery in 2014 titled "Altered Substrate".
Ben Foster, Scribbly Gum II, woodblock print and aerosol paint on paper, 2016
Madeline Young, Banksia Seed Pod I, oil on canvas, 2016
Madeline is an Australian artist living and working in Orange, NSW. Madeline completed a degree in Fine Arts at the University of Newcastle in 2009 majoring in printmaking and photography. She has worked as the artist in residence at an educational institution from 2010 - 2014, Madeline is the director and curator of The Corner Store Gallery and teaches classes and workshops on a number of different mediums.
Madeline creates bold, vibrant, abstract artworks with a focus on colour, shape, pattern and structure. She is fascinated by the finer details of the world around her, often overlooked in everyday life. Madeline looks to texture, pattern and detail to create abstraction in normally recognisable forms.
Since setting up her home studio in 2012 Madeline has moved away from printmaking and photography to painting as this medium is more accessible. It’s the simple colour blocks and half-tone patterns suggestive of screen printing that resonate in her painting style. “To create the images for my paintings I use much the same process I would if I were creating a screen print. I work from photographs and fine tune the image until I’m happy with the composition."
Madeline Young, Banksi Seed Pod II, oil on canvas, 2016