The Opal Dealer's Wife

April 12 - May 4, 2024



installation view - front gallery



installation view - front gallery



installation view - front gallery



installation view - front gallery



installation view - front gallery



installation view - back gallery



installation view - back gallery



installation view - back gallery

 

The Opal Dealer’s Wife is a show between friends. Individual and collaborative works by Karl Fritsch, Brenda Nightingale and Lisa Walker perch on the floor, hang at the wall and balance lightly on planks suspended on an old swing frame. Karl Fritsch presents 20 new rings on clay armatures – indeed it is his chutzpah that drives the entire installation. About his miniature radiata pine trees (nurtured over many months by Nightingale), we register control and mayhem in equal measures all at once. They are contained (as all pinus should be) in wonky Fritsch pots, then nestled into supports ranging from sprung wire and found ply, to a bent canoe paddle perfect from the roadside. They could steal the show but they don’t.

Brenda Nightingale’s paintings, including a couple of very large stretched canvases, have Harry the dog as their starting point. But the figurative referent is all but dissolved by a combination of brushstroke and palette choice, leaving dynamic compositions full of earthy rigour, movement and just the necessary control. They are also hung higher than you might expect and equalised along their bottom edge.

Then placed throughout is a handsome range of new work by Lisa Walker, that is rich, elegant and sits comparatively still. Beads, embroidery and quilting often painted and then drawn upon form the bulk of the material offer, but it is the combination, the surprise of these elements, wearable or not, that is utterly compelling. She would have us part beads to reveal delicate line drawing, as well as stand back to admire form overall.

Karl Fritsch and Lisa Walker appear courtesy of Caroline Billing at The National. Their presence has infused this exhibition with visual joy, confidence and elan. And I thank them absolutely wholeheartedly for that! 
JS

 

Brenda Nightingale - Paintings


Harry & Fran



Harry Running



Harry at the Beach



Ali and Fran



Harry Playing



Harry Barking

 

Harry in the Kitchen Harry

 

 

 Lisa Walker - Selected works

The hanging and the beads
 Eventually some different kind of beads...

 

All jewellery drawings
 A jewellery version...



installation view - back gallery

 

Images of all of Lisa Walker's works are in the Details of works section below. Full titles are:

EVENTUALLY SOME DIFFERENT KINDS OF BEADS CAN BE THREADED ONTO THE SAME STRAND AND CURTAINS ARE GOOD 1 (THANKS MANO PANALVA)

EVENTUALLY SOME DIFFERENT KINDS OF BEADS CAN BE THREADED ONTO THE SAME STRAND AND CURTAINS ARE GOOD 2

EVENTUALLY SOME DIFFERENT KINDS OF BEADS CAN BE THREADED ONTO THE SAME STRAND AND CURTAINS ARE GOOD 3

A JEWELLERY VERSION FROM A MEDIEVIL TAROT CARD TYPE DRAWING OF LOOPED AROUND LONG BREASTS BY AN UNKNOWN ARTIST 1

A JEWELLERY VERSION FROM A MEDIEVIL TAROT CARD TYPE DRAWING OF LOOPED AROUND LONG BREASTS BY AN UNKNOWN ARTIST 2

VARIOUS FACES FROM A FEW DIFFERENT DRAWINGS AND THE BACK IS GOOD TOO

 



Karl Fritsch - Selected works

Glazed clay, wood Glazed clay, bamboo

 

Glazed clay, steel wire Glazed clay, wall pot

 

Selected rings Selected rings

 

Selected rings


Details and images of the twenty individual rings exhibited are available by contacting the gallery...

 



Selected collaborative works

Pendant Glazed clay, acrylic paint

 

Stool 1
 Stool 2

 

Pinus Radiata 1 Pinus Radiata 2

 

Pinus Radiata 3 Pinus Radiata 4

 


Installing...

the artists in conversation...

 

 

Details of works