Exhibition dates 9-27 March

Opening Thurs 11th March @6pm

February 2010

Dear Members and Friends,

Welcome to 2010, with the first Newsletter for this year. This will be a monthly electronic update of our organization’s comings and goings, with information on current and upcoming shows, local arts news, local/state/national opportunities and regular updates on the many changes taking place in Artsalive during 2010.

The first half of this year is very busy and exciting and I encourage you all to get involved. We are moving to another site half-way through this year. With this move the organization will go through a big re-branding and re-programming, membership, volunteer program, and a more active exhibition and public arts program are also currently being revised. This is a very exciting time for our organization and for the Northern Tasmanian Contemporary Arts community and I hope you can all be a part of it.

Our AGM is taking place on Wednesday 17th of March at 6pm. I encourage all existing members and not-yet members to attend. This is very important as the Board will be re-elected at the AGM. If you would like to be considered as a Committee Member or would like to nominate someone to be considered, please notify me prior to the AGM, and it is crucial that you are in attendance.

Best,

Fernando

Director

Artsalive Artspace Inc.

http://www.forestfestival.org/arts-trail-artists/

open daily 10-4     continues till 20th March

Jackeys Marsh Forest Art Trail continues to impress - a special forest art trail showcasing environmental installation artwork from 15 Tasmanian artists on the theme of sustainability was launched as part of the 2010 Jackeys Marsh Forest Festival earlier this month, and will remain open to the public until March 20th.

The art works installations are located on a beautiful meandering bush pathway leading through ferns, mosses and old and regrowth forest on the foothills of Quamby Bluff in the beautiful Jackeys Marsh Valley – adjacent to the recently opened Forest Walks Eco Lodge.

The Forest Art Trail was supported by funding from Festivals Australia, an Australian Government program which supports cultural activity at regional and community festivals. The Australian Government was proud to be associated with the 2010 Jackeys Marsh Forest Festival.

Lodge host and festival committee member Rosemary Norwood said

“I think it’s fantastic that the festival has achieved funding for the Forest Art Walk, and we are pleased that we are able to keep the works up for a further five weeks after the festival itself – this will provide many more people with the opportunity to see the artworks, and also to visit this very special part of Tasmania.”

Artists included in the 2010 Jackeys Marsh Forest Art Trail are Martin Cole, Vicki West, John Parish, Laura McKew, Jo Anglesey, Gardenia Palmer, Niecy Brown, Cecily Edwards, Ralf Haertel, Rob Ikin, Sam Beckman and Maya McDonell, Annie Zohn, Eric Broome, Chris Legend, and Ross Byers. Artists Statements and more information on the installations is available at www.forestfestival.org/arts-trail-artists

The Jackeys Marsh Art Trail is open to the public 7 days a week 10 am to 4pm. To find the Art Trail visitors should take the Meander road from Deloraine, and turn off to Jackeys Marsh on the edge of Meander, then follow signs to Forest Walks Lodge.

Park near the lodge and follow art trail from flags either end. Maps available on site,

Art Walks Lodge contact 63695150

Opening Friday 26th Of February, @ 6pm

To be opened by Damien Quilliam, Curator of Contemporary Australian Art, QVMAG

Exhibition Dates: 23rd Feb – 6th March

Kitty is an ex-Artsaliver/Launcestonian who has recently relocated to Cygnet, Tasmania, where she is one of the resident artists at Balfour House Arts Centre. We welcome her back up north with this fun and exciting exhibition all about kitchens. I hope you can join us for a drink to view this great new body of work.

8th to 20th February, 2009

To be opened by Launceston Mayor, Albert van Zetten
Monday, 8th February, 6pm

Catherine was one of the Artists-in-Residence at the King’s Cottage, Cataract Gorge Reserve in 2009, and has come back to Tasmania with a varied and exciting body of work. It is a combination of digital works, video and projection- again another take by an artist from ashore on this great Tasmanian site.

7th to 20th December, 2009

Opening night Friday 11th of December, 2009, 6:30

Joanna Pinkiewicz (textile artist, print maker) and Vanessa Vanderburgh (photographer) created a combined exhibition of works that draws parallels between memory and physical and intimate spaces such as home and garden and it’s influence on the poetic sensibilities exhibited in their works of art and daily life.

Tuesday 24th November – Saturday 5th December 2009

Special opening Thursday 26th November at 6pm

In Wide Open Road (paintings from the shack) Cole explores a rich palette of evocative colours reminiscent of journeys on seldom walked paths and secluded beaches. These works are poetic in their use of painterly technique – deft strokes of the brush conjure deep emotional resonances and encourage contemplation.

Martin is well known in Launceston as a social and environmental installation artist, and has been involved in a range of community issues over many years. These have included the Shadows in the Waters projects, national Siev X memorial project, Illuminations in the Gorge, the Hands Off the Gorge campaign, and standing for council as an anti pulp mill candidate.

This is Cole’s first solo painting exhibition – “the song A Wide Open Road by the Triffids is one of my favourite Australian songs. Its youthful heartbreak and journey into the unknown is the territory I am exploring in this show”.

Arts Alive Interim Director Ralf Haertel commented “this exuberant exhibition fills the space with strong and vibrant colour, while maintaining a gentle, peaceful feel – this apparent contradiction is skilfully handled by Cole, and a delight to experience.”

To be opened by John Christie, Principal, Giant Steps Tasmania

at 2pm, Sunday 15th November, 2009

Exhibition continues until Friday, 20th November, 10am-4pm

Giant Steps is a specialist school for children with Autism, located in Deloraine, Tasmania. The school provides students with intensive therapeutic and educational support, giving every child the opportunity to reach their full potential. Giant Steps fundraiser Art Exhibition is a celebration of student ability and their unique art making practices. The exhibition is in its second year and coordinated by Jenni-Lee Routledge

3rd-14th November, 2009

Opening night Thursday 5th November, 6:30pm

Skins of Fiction, an exhibition featuring recent paintings by Josh Foley will be held at the Arts Alive Art-space between the 3rd and 14th of November 2009. The paintings are a series of striking portraits based on characters taken from a novella written by Peter Wolfgang Gabriel.

On opening night, Wolfgang will also be launching limited edition copies of his book, Skins of Fiction.

The exhibition is a creative collaboration between the mediums of painting (Josh) and writing (Wolfgang). Josh used ideas for how the characters should look by reading Wolfgang’s work and Wolfgang would include someone into the story that Josh wanted to paint.

The opening night guest speaker is Xydep Xydahlia who will play one of his songs which also uses a segment of text from Wolfgang’s book for the lyrics – introducing yet a further collaborative medium in music.

Are these very different and creatively distinct personas all one and the same person, or is there something else going on here? Interwoven yet quite separate, these three different artists, operating in different media, ‘talk’ to each other, cross reference and cross-fertilise, confuse and yet somehow conspire to make sense of it all.

The central character for Wolfgang’s narrative and Josh’s paintings is Orpheus – reworked and re-invented from the ancient Greek myth, changed in appearance and in direction and given a contemporary edge.

Skins of Fiction is a reference to this transformation, a visual portrayal of the central concept to the overall event – that various skins of information can be applied to something (an identity, a story etc) to alter its original truth – be that visual or literary.

Arts Alive Interim Director Ralf Haertel commented that “Josh is a very talented young painter who has been exploring shifting reality and perceptions through a range of alternative media and personas. This exhibition is an exciting new direction for Foley.”

20th-30th October, 2009

Opening by Ralf Haertel, Tuesday, 20th October, 6pm

This is a joint exhibition showcasing the work of Gladstone (NE Tasmania) artists Vicki and Robert McDonald. This will be their first major exhibition together.

Robert’s sculptures and Vicki’s paintings illustrate the ascending feminine principal, which they feel is occurring now on the planet. This will balance the masculine principal which has been dominant since recorded history.

The work is about creating a new kind of awareness within the onlooker.

Vicki has exhibited extensively throughout Tasmania, and is well known for her vibrant use of colour and form – the works in this exhibition express Vicki’s relationship with the inner world in abstracted images and narratives. Robert’s sculptural forms provide a strong balance for the exhibition, while reflecting on these issues in different media and from a slightly different perspective. Consisting of eight Huon pine sculptures, Robert’s work is both sensual and spiritual.

Robert said “The real essence of individual consciousness is difficult to understand against the background of superimposed conditioning and the ever-present moment is where reality exists - the only place where the balance can occur. The past and future are illusions of the mind.”

The world renowned spiritual leader and author Eckhardt Tolle suggests that ”the power of now is none other than the power of your presence, your consciousness liberated from thought.”

Robert and Vicki believe that, as the critical mass begins to evoke these ideas and change, we will indeed ‘Become One’.