Arty afternoon

David Thomas, NGV, Federation Square 8.10.2010. Photo: Julie Clarke, 2010

Installation view of John Davis Presence. Photo: Julie Clarke, 2010

Trashalley. Steve Middleton, 2010 (copyright)

It was good to visit Steven Middleton this morning and see one of his recent creations, inspired by Pre-Raphaelite imagery and based on the movement of the Whirling Dervishes. His image is an interesting juxtaposition of freedom and containment. Production notes for Steve's image ~ 'Stock 3D models modified by me to suit the image. Muscles are made with 3D displacement mapping, by me, and the body hair is hand painted and applied to the model using 3D bump mapping'.

After visiting Steve I managed to catch the last fifteen minutes of a talk being given by Australian artist, David Thomas at the NGV, Federation Square. He was discussing his large, minimal painting included in the Contemporary Encounters exhibition. The flat, Matt green painting had a wet shinny black stripe running vertically down the middle. If you looked at it long enough the edge between the green and black flared in the most seductive way and the green surface almost glowed. I found it interesting that David felt that he had to defend his non-figurative painting by asserting that 'he was human', as if there had been some controversy around such works as somehow not being so because they lacked obvious reference to the human form.

I must say though, that of all the artworks I saw today I really appreciated the John Davis Presence exhibition also showing on the third floor of the gallery.