Sydney: Clinton Nain

Clinton Nain
re-dress
GRANTPIRRIE GALLERY, Redfern
until 19 September 2009

Left: © Clinton Nain Pay 5, 2009, Acrylic and bitumen on canvas

This exhibition closes on Saturday, Nain's first Sydney show for 2 years. It has slipped under Sydney's art radar somewhat, possibly because it doesn't feature his better known motifs of weeping hearts, mission dresses and potholed roads. One of Nain's great strengths as a painter is that he is constantly exploring new expressions of his familiar themes, and refuses to just keep doing what has sold well in the past, which must be tempting, especially with his work of the last decade doing well in the secondary market.

To those that are familar with the artist's many themes, this exhibition is an exciting progression from his explorations of written language seen in his shows AEIOU (2006), and Resistance to Resilience (2008) at Nellie Castan Gallery in Melbourne. Bitumen and white acrylic on canvas are the media, and here scrawled and iterated words have decayed and merged to the point abstraction. The impact of the whole room hung with these works is quite extraordinary - go see.

Sydney: Tim Silver

Tim Silver – Coming around again & Rory
Breenspace
until 26 Sep 2009

Left: Tim Silver Untitled (Rory) 2009, watercolour pigment, initial dimensions 105 x 40 x 34 cm irregular

Much written about, this exhibition is worthy of note, if not a physical visit. Sally Breen devotes almost the whole of her enviable warehouse space to a single work, Rory (pictured), which 2 weeks into the show should be considerably reduced by the dripping water from above - and soon to be no more than puddle of blue pigment on the floor.

In a small separated area are a series of photographic pieces - each a progressive record of the watery decay of different objects - beach jetsam such coke cans, plastic bottles and thongs cast in solid pigment, cinnamon and other metaphorical substances, but always water soluble. These works are for sale, each a series of 5 A4-sized prints, but it's the cast multiples in the backroom that exert the real fascination and are, we understand, not for sale. Silver keeps the concept pure - he is all about ephemeral decay.

Some of this work will also be seen at the upcoming 'Wax-On' group show at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery in December, curated by Nell Schofield.