Exhibitions by year: 2010

TREVOR WEEKES works never disappoint. He is known for his fascination with bird and animal subjects. In WEEKES latest body of work he is concerned with the primate, drawing closer associations between human and animal behaviour. Rendering his subjects in opulent settings in the tradition of wealthy patronage portraiture, he lends the sitter a human dignity that they are not normally afforded. His portraits incite contemplation on the human fascination with opulence, symbols of power and the way in which we have subordinated other species in the pursuit of our own ends.

Sensuality and wonder are important elements of MIIK GREEN'S work. His sculptural reliefs consider mutability and transformation, simultaneously referencing the organic and the artificial. GREEN is concerned with creating optical links. He says his work "is basically about sensuality and space... Desire and consumerism come into play with the objects, too - the urge to touch and feel something that looks as appealing as each individual object."

INGRID JOHNSTONE enjoys the physical act of painting on canvas, she charges her compositions with intuitive, sweeping brushstrokes that harness the expressive potential of pure colour. JOHNSTONE's work speaks of the beauty of textiles as much as of the joy of painting. Her imagery is fired by the Dogon tribes of Africa and the textiles of Peru, just as she has marvelled at the patience of the weavers labouring at the loom in Morocco, the cloth of India, Burma and the Ibans of Sarawak. Tonality and movement imply veils of cloth, and like drapery the surfaces of her paintings both reveal and conceal.

FILOMENA COPPOLA, JANET DAWSON and MERRICK FRY share a love of the world around them, which they interpret in their art with spirit and imagination. The cultural clashes of an Italian heritage in an Anglo-Australian childhood influence FILOMENA COPPOLAs art and her images reveal her seductive vision for a world of perfect confluence. A superb colourist and consummate draughtsman, JANET DAWSON has had a long career as one of Australias most influential artists. MERRICK FRY is an artist of great inventiveness and his recent sculptures allow the viewer to peer into worlds of fantasy and magical realism.

WENDY TEAKEL's evocative works explore the way in which site is physically encoded, incised and scarred by the transient living things which inhabit it. TEAKEL's three-dimensional works are intimate, inviting installations, with a sense of place, passage and ritual. At once weathered and beautiful, her poetic landscapes on paper and plywood bare an earthiness and vitality reminiscent of the country between Canberra and Wagga Wagga.

To ASHLEY FROST cities are curious and vibrant places, sites of modernity and the cradle of contemporary life. Fascinated by intersections, where the city's periphery converges with the inner suburbs and the moment where day ends and night begins, he shows us there is great physical beauty to be found in the urbane.

Sensitive works by leading Beijing artist HU Qinwu present an aspect of contemporary art from China not usually seen in Australia. HU Qinwu's playful command of traditional techniques reflects the burgeoning of an abstract style amongst a young generation of artists in Beijing.

STELLA DOWNER FINE ART @ MELBOURNE ART FAIR 2010 Stand B83
2010 Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens, Melbourne

STELLA DOWNER FINE ART has exhibited at the Melbourne Art Fair since 2002. Exhibiting in the 2010 Fair will be RAE BOLOTIN, TANYA CHAITOW, ANNA EGGERT, MIIK GREEN, LIZ SHREEVE & TREVOR WEEKES (from the gallery's stable of over thirty artists).

BRUCE RADKE is highly respected for his skill as a sculptor and for over 20 years he has been creating seamless works. Seductive and sensual, the liquid twists of RADKE's sculptures appeal to our fingertips as well as our eyes. Like music, twirling, turning and coming to rest, his sculptures gracefully balance form and rhythm.

VIRGINIA CUPPAIDGE paints intuitively and her canvases flourish with feeling and energy. Her oil and acrylic works on canvas show the inherent vitality of Abstraction. Born in Brisbane, CUPPAIDGE studied in Sydney with Desiderous Orban, Stanislaus Rapotec, Marea Gazzard, John Olsen and Robert Klippel before moving to New York in 1969 to "see the best abstract art going on at the time and live in the art museums." Although CUPPAIDGE has lived in New York for more than thirty years she has come to the realization that her abstract work is routed in her Australian experience.

RAE BOLOTIN experiments with tantalising organic forms, playing with equilibrium and scale to surreal effect. Drawing inspiration from study and reflections at the Mt Tomah Botanic Garden, BOLOTIN works in her studio in the central Blue Mountains where she is surrounded by incredible bush. Delicate botanical elements like seed pods are incarnated in stainless steel using a traditional Chinese metal beating technique combined with modern industrial processes. Sprouting tensions between surface and form, BOLOTIN'S sculptures centre on the intrinsic values of nature, reminding us that beautiful things spring from the smallest of kernels.

Quietly esteemed Australian treasure, sculptor MAY BARRIE and her daughter TORI DE MESTRE live in a romantic alliance with nature. Living and working on their beloved family property at Calderwood they achieve a synthesis of artist, site and practice.