Coffs Goes POP

Exhibition - Behind the Scenes

Coffs Goes Pop - Artist Statement

Sunrise walks across Mutton Bird Island, beach walks, harbour swims, trekking rainforest trails, backroad shacks and sheds, views from the mountains, cool dips in crisp valley streams, immersion in ocean waves, the natural wonder of the Split Solitary Marine Park, paddle, walk, bike ride up the Coffs Creek, sail around the islands, jump, dive off the Jetty, sunset beach strolls, just some of the many ways to experience and enjoy all that is on offer across the Coffs Coast.

This exhibition series is a celebration of that daily life.

Enjoy. 

 

Poster design to promote Coffs Goes POP Exhibition 2019

Coffs Goes POP developed over a ten year period during my time living on the Coffs Coast, drawing inspiration from places experienced and revisited across the region. Coastal environments, everyday journeys, and familiar locations became the starting point for visual transformation using a vibrant pop art inspired palette to reframe local experience into heightened visual form.

Artworks edited and prepared to send to the printers

Putting it together, designing the wall layout based on the dimensions of the wall

Opening nights are always fun

 

Artworks from this collection were first exhibited on 13 August 2019, my 60th birthday, at Old Johns Café, Coffs Harbour. Many works sold on opening night, and many coffees and chats were had during the exhibition period, with several collectors later acquiring sets of three or more works for their homes. One artwork, The Big Banana was later purchased and donated to the Yarrila Arts and Museum, Coffs Harbour.

Exhibitions have formed an important part of my creative process, allowing ideas to be tested within a real audience context and within the market itself. Exhibition environments provide an opportunity to observe how audiences respond to scale, colour relationships, and subject interpretation beyond the studio setting.

This exhibition sits within a broader continuum of solo and group presentations that have contributed to the development of my photographic language. Other solo exhibitions include Lost in the Bush and Cliché Life, each exploring different aspects of perception and visual narrative. The Trolley Dolly series has also been presented within group exhibition contexts.

Coffs Goes POP Exhibition installed at Old Johns Café, Coffs Harbour

Inclusion in curated exhibitions such as Northern Exposure at Glasshouse Regional Gallery and STILL Salon at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery has provided valuable external feedback and professional context for the work. These exhibition frameworks contribute to an ongoing process of refinement, allowing ideas to evolve through both independent and curated presentation environments.

ART1 now represents the fully expanded and developed gallery of artworks arising from this early exploration. The original exhibited works were produced as smaller test pieces, sized at 30 × 20 cm and 30 x 30 cm. Within ART1, the works are presented in their fully realised form, generally offered at 90 × 60 cm, allowing the colour relationships and structural composition to operate at their intended scale.

Exhibitions continue to provide a valuable framework for testing visual language and audience response, just as entering art prizes and competitions enables the expansion of ideas and the extension of creative enquiry into new fields of expression.

A great place for coffee, catch up and a chat, Old Johns, Coffs Harbour