Lost Bear Gallery is proud to present ‘Trove’, a joint exhibition of works by James Blackwell and Judith Martinez, running from 7 - 30 November. Blackwell has shown at Lost Bear Gallery since 2008. He has had several exhibitions at commercial galleries as well as three major exhibitions at public galleries. At Blackwell’s request, he is showing this year alongside Martinez, who is a more emerging artist. ‘Trove’ represents her first major exhibition. Blackwell and Martinez create distinctly different artwork and yet the collecting and repurposing of materials link their individual practices. For Blackwell, the materials are natural: leaves, seedpods and the like, gathered from the environment that is his inspiration. His painstaking recreation of this trove of materials into complex, enthralling artworks results in a multitude of connotations, from meditation to the cycle of life and death, to our fragile relationship with the natural world. For Martinez, the collecting is of manmade objects such as watch parts and old photographs. These become works of art that explore notions of humanity, memory and determinism. They challenge our ideas of identity and free will. Martinez also explores the trove of memories that form a person’s identity in her photographic work, similarly composed from multiple images. Martinez states that her use of layering “creates visual maps for the viewer to navigate, inviting them to return and decipher the stories within the works.”
Exhibition Opening: Lost Bear Gallery Saturday 7th November 3-5pm 98 Lurline Street Katoomba NSW
My anchor is the landscape in which I live.....the Blue Mountains of NSW. Here, the seasons are distinct, reliable and inevitable. This landscape adapts to the backdrop of seasons and offers inspiration in its repetition and symmetry. A value embodied in the artwork I create.
-JAMES BLACKWELL
I am a collector – in my work I use carefully curated images and objects that are repurposed through photography, digital montage and collage to create stories by layering old and new. The works invite viewers to unlock the narratives embedded within them.
- JUDITH MARTINEZ
