Off Shore Aerial View
Gallery 88 Presents Drawings On Water – Series 2 by Ralph Kerle
New South Wales Treasurer and State Member for Willoughby, the Hon. Gladys Berejiklian M.P. will open an exhibition by Willoughby art photographer Ralph Kerle at Gallery 88, 88 Penshurst St, Willoughby on Thursday 7 April.
The exhibition, Drawings On Water – Series 2, comprises photographs of reflected images taken during kayak journeys on Sydney’s Middle Harbour.
The centrepiece of this new exhibition is a collaboration between Ralph Kerle and his friend and fellow artist Saif Almurayati.
The idea for the collaboration came up in conversation and Almurayati’s first reaction was that it was very challenging. ‘As much as we are very good friends, we come from very different backgrounds, different cultures. The challenge for me is how to harmonise the collaboration—in a visual and physical way.’
Almurayati’s technique, which he compares to ‘automatic writing’, involves tapping his subconscious for letters or words (in Arabic calligraphy, Latin, English and Persian), which he writes on a canvas while wearing a blindfold. He has applied this technique to one of Kerle’s photographs "The Dust May Never Settle On Our World."
Following its premiere at Gallery 88 in March 2015, Ralph Kerle’s initial Drawings on Water exhibition travelled to Portugal and Latvia later in the year to critical acclaim.
Ralph Kerle is a multi-media artist using image, sound and text to create works that push the edges of art practices. Graduating from the Victorian College of The Arts majoring in Dramatic Arts in 1979, he came to prominence in Australia in the early 90s as a pioneer in the creation and production of digital multi-media live performance art shows. The Drawings on Water photographic series sees him return to a single image practice. His work is now in private collections in Australia, India, and Singapore. He is a former Associate Director of the Sydney Theatre Company.
Saif Almurayati is an honours graduate from the National Art School, Sydney. In 2011 he was artist-in-residence at the Australia Council of the Arts Paris Studio and he received the Blake Prize for Human Justice for his DVD ‘Unfolding History’ in2012.
Opening:
Thursday 7 April 2016 at 6 p.m. Nibbles and drinks will be provided.
Gallery 88, 88 Penshurst St, Willoughby, P: 61 2 9958 8904, www.frame88.com.au. Free car parking is available at the Oakville Road council car park, behind Dan Murphy’s on Penshurst St.
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Further information is available at www.ralphkerlesart.com. To arrange an interview please contact Ralph on 0412 559 603.