University of Tasmania, Australia

Exhibition opening speaker: Professor Stephen Loo, Head of School of Architecture, University of Tasmania

Exhibition opening: 5.30 - 7pm Friday 5 July

Exhibition artist: Mary Ballantyne Fooks

Exhibition curator: Malcom Bywaters, Director, Academy Gallery/NEW Gallery, University of Tasmania

Moments will exhibit selected artworks by Mary Ballantyne Fooks highlighting the contrast and similarity from past and recent works, which are linked by a fascination with the idea of vulnerability and flux.

The earlier works on paper challenge physical presence through portrait. There is a sense of unravelling form in an amorphous ground. The later abstract paintings leave representation of the figurative (figure-portrait) behind and explore ideas of presence and awareness through sensory experience.

The artwork acknowledges and celebrates human dependence on our basic senses and thus the motivation underlying the work is experiential. The subject refers to elemental substances and the transitory nature of light.

The method of Ballantyne Fooks contrary to the suggestion of ‘moments’, is often slow and layered, involving addition and subtraction over time. The fascination with the ‘moment’ is the awareness of that moment as part of a larger continuum.

Moments: Mary Ballantyne Fooks is presented as part of the Academy Gallery X Factor exhibition program. The X Factor Program  aims to promote Tasmanian artists who have sustained a substantial quality arts practice over a number of years. 

^{image credit: Mary Ballantyne Fooks, Night #1, Painting (oil on canvas), 140 x 160cm, 2013}