The Codex Coner is one of the most beautiful surviving architectural manuals from the Renaissance. Created around 1510, the illustrated manual was complied in Rome and documents historical and contemporary Roman architecture by the likes of Bramante (1444--1514), Raphael (1483--1520), and Michelangelo (1475--1564). The scope of it's contents and information are unmatched and can be attributed to draftsman & Florentine carpenter: Bernardo della Volpaia (c.1475--1521). The manual was discovered by Michael Goldberg during his time in Italy and influenced a major body of his work from the late 1970's until the mid-late 1980's. 'Codex Coner Piede Vicentino' by Michael Goldberg 1980 [pictured below left] references the fundamental structures of Roman architecture, the divisional lines appearing as abstracted columns supporting the uneven weight of the pink colorfield. The technique Goldberg used to create these works on handmade paper was particularly fresh. Matt medium was applied to the paper with water to create a wet surface that Goldberg would draw into with lecturers chalk - a material that the artist would find an affinity with and subsequently use in paintings for the remainder of his career. Renowned collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel found particular interest in this work and acquired several drawings for their collection. 'Codex Coner Piede Vicentino' was donated to  Yale University as a part of the Vogel's 50 x 50 - 50 Works for 50 States, after Dorothy's passing in 2012. We are thrilled to work with the Goldberg Estate to include 2 of these amazing and historically important works in our limited edition print collection. Visit our SHOP to see the available work, or enquire with the gallery about sales of the original works.

   

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Elise Lee's signature graphic pop style draws inspiration from minimalism and Asian Pop Art to create an exciting, uplifting & clean cut visual experience. Playing with the iconography of donuts, love hearts and sausage tubes, Lee's work is quirky and fun - perfect for a space that needs a little life. Lee earned her post graduate degree in Fine Art from the renowned Pratt Institute in New York City before moving to Los Angeles where she currently lives and works. She exhibits across the United States and in Korea and has been published in Art Buzz, Art Slant and Studio Visit Magazine. TWFineArt is Lee's exclusive dealer in Australia and we are thrilled to introduce her to our portfolio of limited edition prints. Elise's range of prints can be sized from SMALL: 400 mm x 500mm to XL 800mm x 1000mm and look fantastic set against a minimal backdrop or room design. Visit our SHOP to view Elise's full series of available work. We will print, frame, pack and ship the work directly to your door, or you can pick it up in the TWFineArt Gallery & GuideShop on James Street in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley.  

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The new work by Michelle Matson 'Untitled' 2014 (below) that is on show now at Postmasters in New York City is not all that it seems at first glance.           What appears to be a sculptural structure made of simple styrofoam cubes littered with food scraps and tennis balls, is actually a carefully crafted sculpture of imitation. We live in a world of imitation - a Louis Vuitton bag in the store may be copied in some backwater factory and sold on the street for a small fraction of the price of the 'original' sold in the store. It's our business to take a high value artwork and reproduce it in a limited edition print that is essentially a replica - only it costs almost nothing compared to the original. To the undescerning eye the copy is as good as the original, it feels the same, weighs the same, looks the same - so isn't it essentially the same? What makes one item more valuable than the other? Duchamp offers a theory - that is one of context; if a run of the mill bottle rack is turned upside down and placed in a Gallery, it is more valuable than the exact same bottle rack that you have sitting in the garage. It's an interesting philosophical question that makes you question the way we assign value to objects. Why do we value one thing more than another, even if they appear exactly the same? I remember being quite taken with some sculptures by Jeff Koons. The pieces were these inflatable pool sculptures that seemed to float around Sonnabend Gallery when they were exhibited in 2003. I was totally convinced that they were appropriated plastic blow up toys until I touched one. They looked like plastic toys, the only difference was that they were cold to the touch - not plastic at all, rather exact replicas cast out of aluminum & steel. He reversed the Louis Vuitton scenario - making a mass produced $5.00 pool toy into a multi million dollar work of art. Matson seems to be playing with the same ideas. In this sculpture she has taken rather utilitarian items, like styrofoam cubes and created hand made replicas, stacking them into a sculptural formation as if they were the real thing about to be carved out. She has then hand made scraps of discarded food like banana peels (from paper) and imitation tennis balls and thrown them atop the sculpture like preciously disregarded trash. Its quite a commentary on the precious verses the utilitarian - like Koons, something rather benign and valueless has been converted into art. This line of thinking is very relevant to our lives at the moment. Mass production techniques have elevated the copy to a state of almost perfect imitation. Retailers have cottoned on to the idea, designers like Stella McCartney not only cater to the exclusive one off, but make high quality garments that can be massed produced through better production capabilities and offer them through other retailers at a fraction of the price of the items in her stores. Just as good as the high end thing - for most of us? I think so. Matson & Koons reverse this thinking and the result is fascinating. Visit Michelle's website to view more of her amazing work.

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The role of the infinitely small is infinitely large. Louis Pasteur

The reality of our reality is like that of an iceberg - the vast majority of it is hidden from view. Yet, with the aid of modern technology we are able to peer into this mysterious microscopic world and when we do, we uncover a whole new range of visual forms, some familiar, others completely alien.

Scale Free Network (SFN) is an Australian art-science collaborative made up of two artists (Briony Barr & Jacqueline Smith) and a microbiologist (Dr. Gregory Crocetti). Their interdisciplinary workshops and interactive installations focus on observation of the micro-scale as a source of inspiration and wonder, combining drawing processes, sculpture and microscopy as tools for visualising, exploring and learning about ‘invisible’ worlds.

Science & Art will walk hand in hand next month as TWFineArt collaborates with the Scale Free Network to create limited edition Cotton Rag Prints of images from under the microscope. Since scale and perception are key interests, we will be blowing up these tiny microscopic images to human proportions. The result being pixelated, painterly compositions of color and form where you not only questions the nature of the forms themselves, but also the nature of the imagery. Is it a tree or the branches of an amoeba - a painting or a photo? Regardless - the images are stunning!

Stay tuned to www.twfineart.com for the release date of this exciting collaboration.

     

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  [divider] [caption id="attachment_8150" align="alignleft" width="464"] Act II, Oil on canvas 20" x 20" 2013[/caption] Larissa and I met in New York, on the job so to speak. Many lunches and morning coffees were spent together discussing each others work, what shows we'd seen recently and what had caught our eye. I've always admired her gusto. Larissa now lives in Chicago and I have had the pleasure of watching her work develop from afar. I remember her early works, dark and frenzied with murderous marks, as if she was attacking the canvas or paper with her tools. Dismembered bodies and featureless faces were drawn like comic figures, making the work an unsettling combination of horror and humor. Larissa's early color palette included a lot of red and brown, reminding me of blood, both wet and dry. Fresh wounds mixed with those of the past. Incessant scratchings on the surface, the repetition of similar marks over and over again like some inner torment was being played out on the surface. Great artists evolve, their work informs itself and in time, thoughts become more complete and the artwork more accomplished. Larissa is one such artist. Her work is forever evolving, becoming whole - she'll never rest though, I can't imagine that her work will ever be enough for her and that's what makes her great. [caption id="attachment_8153" align="alignright" width="446"] Echo, Oil on canvas 20" x 20" 2014[/caption] From our chats I know of Larissa's love and respect for the art that has come before us. Her understanding of modernism is evident in the sophistication of her work. She has selectively stolen a little bit from here, a little from there and made it her own. I see the references, but I also see something exciting and new. These latest paintings invite you into a fresh space, both physical and psychological. The frenzy, aggression and humor are still there, but they have become weaved amongst a sophisticated sense of space and color. I get displaced when looking at her new work. I'm thrown into a territory where I feel multiple sensations simultaneously. Anger, joy, frustration, peace with glimpses of a familiar reality. Her art mimics life, there are no definite answers, just moments of clarity and confusion, comfort and discomfort. Larissa tells stories through her work without being didactic - a condition that plagues contemporary art. Her work is charged by both process and content, a multi-dimensional drama that plays out in two dimensional space. Perhaps what I love most of all is the spatial evolution of Larissa's work - I have spent many hours just sitting in the MoMA looking, marveling really, at The Piano Lesson by Matisse. I think it is a masterpiece, formally and emotionally. It has the power to invite you into an imagined, somewhat abstract space and hold you there. It is this quality that I see in Larissa's paintings. I'm so excited to see where she goes next, because I know it will somewhere exceptional.     [caption id="attachment_8162" align="aligncenter" width="465"] The Administrator, Oil on canvas 16" x 16" 2013[/caption] [caption id="attachment_8163" align="aligncenter" width="557"] All Dried Up, Oil on canvas 30" x 40" 2014[/caption] [caption id="attachment_8164" align="aligncenter" width="558"] An Offering (For Basic Necessity) Or Lack Of, Oil on canvas 60" x 60" 2013[/caption]      

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