I had a recent stay in Sydney and had a wonderful time visiting the Art Gallery of NSW and the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes and also saw Wangechi Mutu’s exhibition at the MCA. I was not allowed to take photos of the exhibits at AGNSW to show you but there were some standouts – I particularly liked the watercolour prize winner in the Wynne Exhibition – ‘Central Railway Station’ painted in Chinese style by Xiuying Chen and Guy Maestri’s ‘Last light over Ball’s Pyramid’. I also attended a life drawing workshop at the Art Gallery – great fun and an excellent teacher in Ochre Lawson.
Another trip took in the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay  – at the same time as a huge  cruise ship was docked at the Quay – you can just see the bow of the ship in this photo from the foyer of the MCA. The Vivid light festival was also happening and the photo of the MCA below has some of the light show displayed.

I am fast becoming a fan of the new MCA and was blown away by the extraordinary exhibits by Wangechi Mutu – a Kenyan born, Brooklyn based artist who seems to work in just about every possible medium. The chairs on the left are ‘Black Thrones’ – composed of chairs, plastic bags, ribbon, cassette tapes and feathers – they made me think of ‘Lord of the Rings’ – quite eerie. The picture on the right is a detail of one of her installations – looking like tree roots made of blankets. All the time there is sound from video installations of a woman at women’s work in Africa – quite compelling and attention seeking – and what an impact! I believe the woman depicted was actually the artist. Overall there is a compelling story of women and one room depicts reproductive organs – fairly abstract, but you definitely get the message. The images – composed of collage and various other elements like beads and drawn and painted images and skins have an emotional effect. One man muttered darkly about the state of art as he moved out of the room, while a woman in my age group was really moved and excited by the work. We discovered that we were both artists who had come back to embrace our creativity at a mature age and shook hands over our combined joy at experiencing this exciting move of ours and the art of Mutu.

The creatures depicted below are ‘moths’ composed of plastic human legs, leather wings and feather feelers – again unreal, but really they looked as if about to take wing. The exhibition finishes on 11th August 2013 and is definitely work a look.

Below is a picture taken from one of the galleries to the street below – loved the intersection of light, reflections, old Sydney and new Sydney – what a brilliant city!