2008 SHERRIE KNIPE AND HELEN FULLER
EXHIBITION IMAGES
SHERRIE KNIPE: HOME’S PUN
6 – 23 NOVEMBER 2008
Sherrie Knipe’s intricately carved wood and bronze sculptures are like quirky, three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles made up of ‘useful’ objects that she manipulates and rejuvenates into the seemingly ‘useless’. The puzzle pieces range from ordinary household items such as crockery, pegs or buttons, to tiny pieces of nature such as leaves, twigs or fish. Often involving a distortion of scale, (giant tea-cups and tiny caravans), Knipe’s sculptures, “demand a re-examination of the utilitarian and show the possibilities of objects beyond their intended purpose”.1
Her second solo exhibition with Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art, Knipe’s exhibition of deftly carved wood, and cast bronze, takes us into a rich, imaginary world where a guitar is made from flowers, a bag is made from keys, a heart-shaped locket is made from feet, and a power plug is made from shells.
BIOGRAPHY
Born on Queensland’s Gold Coast, Sherrie Knipe graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) from Queensland University of Technology in 1990 and in 2006 completed a Masters of Visual Art (Sculpture) at Monash University in Melbourne. Over the past ten years Knipe has participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions including Flaming Youth at Orange Regional Gallery in 2006, Homing Devises, her first solo show with SSFA in 2005, and A Beating Heart at Tasmania’s Devonport Regional Gallery, also in 2005. Since 1997 Knipe has been recognised in numerous art prizes and most recently was a finalist at the 2007 ABN Amro Emerging Artist Award. She has also been included in the 2008 text book Artwise Contemporary 2 – Visual Arts 10–12 by Glenis Israel. Knipe’s work is held in state and regional collections across Australia including Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane City Hall Art Gallery and Museum, and Artbank .
1. Reid, Michael. ‘The Art Oracle’, Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 February 2007
HELEN FULLER: VAPOUR
6 – 23 NOVEMBER 2008Helen Fuller has combined two delicately complimenting series of works on paper in her third solo exhibition with Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art, VAPOUR. Each of the two series, BREATH, and ALTITUDE, refer to some of the more intricate repetitive textures and patterns that exist as ‘vapour’ in the world around and within us - “cloudy blue skies, night skies and starry constellations,. fields of air moved through when flying at high altitude, ... and the more intimate air one’s breath…” Her works are like visual meditations in which “the repetition of a simple one action produces compilations of patterns and shape, sewing seeds of creative possibilities.”
BIOGRAPHY
Helen Fuller graduated with a Diploma of Fine Art (Painting) from the University of South Australia were she was later awarded a Masters of Visual Arts in 1994. She began her extensive exhibiting career even before graduating, and since 1977 has been the subject of over 25 solo exhibitions and over 80 group exhibitions both in Australia and China. Her paintings are held in all major collections throughout Australia, in including National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, and Parliament House in Canberra. In 2007 Fuller was invited to take up residency at the Victorian Tapestry Workshop, culminating in Samplers, a solo exhibition of the works she developed there. Over the last 15 years Fuller’s practice has been largely concerned with discovering anew the layered meanings associated with various textiles and her paintings and collages explore these meanings via subjects as everyday as domestic fabric and haberdashery items such as buttons and safety pins.
1 & 2. Helen Fuller, Artist Statement, September 2008