12x12 Exhibition

To the untrained eye, aMBUSH gallery has the exterior of an abandoned warehouse, tucked away in the district of Waterloo. To the trained eye, the gallery's exterior is considered “indie”, although this would be a euphemism for “really ugly”. It reminded me of something molded clumsily out of clay and spray painted white. Ugliness aside, the contents of the building on Friday night were impressively not-ugly, to say the least, when aMBUSH played host to 12X12, an exhibition that armed 12 Australian artists with 12 canvases that were 12 by 12 inches.

 

Visiting aMBUSH gallery for the first time on 12X12's opening night, I was expecting to see wall after wall of postmodern mumbo jumbo spread thickly across canvases, like Nutella on toast. However, unlike Nutella on toast, I was not expecting any of the artworks to be tasteful. Call it pessimism, if you will, but I'd seen my fair share of unimpressive exhibitions, and they really reeked. 12X12, however,did not reek.

 

Most of the artists took unique approaches to create their artworks. While some, notably Eamo, Ant Keogh and Yok, chose to leave their 12 canvases unjoined -- thus, presenting the canvases in a tiled formation -- others, like Dyzla and Reka (yes, I do realise that these are strange sounding names, but they're what the artists prefer to go by; deal with it) hung the canvases close together to create long panels and different shapes.

 

Styles and techniques also differed greatly. Eamo's images were illustrative and simple, but his incorporation of collage and rich hues of pastel-shaded paints created luscious layers that looked good enough to eat. His body of work was comical and poked fun at Australian stereotypes, particularly with his depictions of the stereotypical Aussie “yobbo” with a beer in one hand and half-smoked cigarettes in the other. From a distance, the canvases looked overworked -- as though an ice-cream van had exploded in front of the wall -- but upon closer inspection, Eamo's paintings were soft, mesmerising, and quite beautiful.

 

Others that impressed included Yok, whose graffiti-esque artwork burst with freshness and commanded attention. The striking contrast between bright red and intense black pulled gallery-goers towards the canvases, while the detailed illustration containing, elements of design, tied the bold paintings together. In comparison, Creepy's paintings were no where near as attention-grabbing as Yok's, but were still charmingly handsome and scored points for subtlety, and the inclusion of dainty little characters that I wanted to put in my pocket.

 

There were, however, some disappointments. While Dyzla clearly had technical skill and brilliant draftsmanship, I completely missed the point of what he was trying to achieve through his paintings. When compared to the surrounding artworks, his triptych seemed lacking, perhaps slightly overshadowed by the intense colours nearby that popped with excitement. Ben Frost's paintings proved to be incredibly popular, but were, on a number of levels, too chaotic, and came across as being provocative for the sake of being provocative (think: images of lesbian sex and female masturbation).

 

Location: aMBUSH Gallery, 4A James St. Waterloo

Food/drinks served: No food, but Little Creatures Brewery and Glenguin Estate Boutique Winery, who were sponsors of the event, provided guests with tall, fat bottles of beer and wine.

Crowd: The gallery was packed with scruffy-looking boys, and girls in daringly red lipstick.

Can I bring my non-artistic sweetheart? Certainly. I brought my own Computer Science geek with me, and he enjoyed it quite muchly.

Word of advice: They only have one toilet and it's unisex. The left cubicle is the actual toilet, the right is a shower. NEITHER have locks. Be alert at all times.