Point B Residency in New York

In 2010 I was awarded a Point B Residency in New York

Unfortunately this residency program like many others in New York is closing down due to gentrification of the area. But this experience has been invaluable to my artistic development and during my month at Point B I created several collages from found objects and paint from subway and magazines. 

I also attended a  Kathy Carracio  Collage Intensive.

Information on Point B:
PointB is an international worklodge for artists and creative professionals who are seeking a short-term base to research and produce art while in New York City. Founded in 1996, we are conveniently located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. PointB provides studio space as well as a network of services for visiting artists during residencies, research and New York based projects or exhibitions.

Point B works with a number of cultural organizations such as the Asian Cultural Council, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, BBK Bremen, Farpath Foundation, Transartists of the Netherlands, and many others, providing studio locations for their artists

www.pointb.org

Can Serrat International Art Centre

After a year full of emotional new beginnings, transformations, closures and unexpected turns. I decided to complete an opportunity given to me in 2005. I was awarded a visual art support stipend at Can Serrat International Art Centre. This centre only offers funding to 30 artists annually. It was a perfect time in my life to be in the spiritual place of Barcelona and understand my need to create fluid, informal calligraphic art that was influenced by Tachism. Can Serrat was originally an old winery, it had a rambling added on presence of a communal home for many artists over many years. This beautiful white-dusted building with many attics and added on studios sat at the foot of the mountain. A perfect place to create. Peaceful, with scents from the olivegrove, long lunches, open fires and rich Spanish wine. The garden was lush, surreal as in Miro's paintings and many donated sculptures and mood lit areas reflect the magic which emanated from Montserrat's monolithic, misted forms. My studio was expansive, sunlit and sectioned with stained glass. There were musted, blue, ochre and green colors and gold mine of equipment left in the other studios. I spent a lot of my time absorbing the city of Barcelona, especially the galleries. It was wonderful to have the 30 days in a country to understand a European culture that was so different from Australia. It was only 45 Minutes to get to the centre of Barcelona. I worked hard when I was in the studio at Can Serrat International Arts Centre. As part of the residency I had to produce an art piece to donate to the permanent collection. Using Miro's calligraphic use of black and combining it with Motherwells' collage and ideas in "Elegy to a Spanish Republic" I created a framed work on paper "Elegy to a Samurai". If you are in Barcelona and interested in art and respectful that Can Serrat International Art Centre is a place to work for artists and writers - there is rooms for the general public. It is such a magical place, warm atmosphere and the experience at Can Serrat has given me new perspectives on how to live and create art. The experience at the residency has also given me access to the great masters which I can now embed into my work.

(Media Release) Red Gallery 2005

MEDIA RELEASE
FIONA HALSE
RECENT WORK
26 July -13 August,  2005

Fiona Halse takes Klee’s line for a walk. She displays the versatility and expressiveness of line through her of small oval paintings and mixed media works on paper.

Several of the oval paintings were selected for the annual Mary Place Gallery Exhibition of Six Young Artists (Sydney 2004). There is also an array of recent drawings and mixed media works which display a break in style from the small contained oval format to calligraphic open compositions in the recent works on paper.

The exhibition has a golden hue. The ovals are have a Early Renaissance Icon feel and the long drawings have a similar suspension in form as Japanese Screens.
Both often have an ochre mid-tone.

The work is found and discovered in a direct manner, the process of drawing is important in these works. The oval paintings are reworked in the fast drying acrylic and the drawings has a sense of re-assessment , collage, re-cut and redrawn aspect to them. All works search for harmony and rhythm in form and color.
Line traces that search.

Every line says “ Here I am!” each holds its own, reveals its own eloquent features and whispers “Listen to my secret!” (Kandinsky)

Fiona Halse, born in 1974, graduated from Monash University 1996. She has received The Ella Donald Scholarship and Ian Potter Grant. She was selected for the MPRG National Works on Paper and Sothesby’s Taste in Art Auction. More recently she was selected from artists in Australia and New Zealand to be in the annual Mary Place Gallery Young Artists Exhibition 2004 and she was selected for the Prometheus Art Award 2005. She has also been selected for a support stipend residency at Can Serrat International Art Centre, Montserrat, Spain 2006.

This is Fiona Halse’s third solo show.

Where:           Red Gallery, 157 St Georges Road, Fitzroy North, VIC
Website:         www.redgallery.com.au
Contact:         mail@redgallery.com.au/ (03) 9482 3550
Hours:            Tuesday-Saturday,  12.00-6.00 pm
Opening:        Wednesday July 27th,  6.00-8.00 pm

(Media Release) 69 Smith Street, Fiona Halse, Solo Exhibition 2002

FIONA HALSE
RECENT WORK
28 August -15 September,  2002

Fiona Halse’s second solo exhibition at 69 Smith Street Gallery consists of approximately 80 small assembled cardboard and mixed media works which have been repainted/rearranged until a lyrical rhythm is formed.

The exhibition is like an excerpt from a sketch book, the work hang as brainstorm of ideas, the work ranging from staccato, legato and rest concepts. The works together form a type of concerto/symphonic growth.

Halse strongly believes in Motherwell’s statement in that the game is not what things look like. The game is organizing states of feeling(1). Kandinsky’s search for the essence/sound of the form and the understanding that every form has a function and different impact on the composition is also relevant to Halse’s work .

Fiona Halse’s exhibition at 69 Smith Street attempts to capture internal forms , her works has been described as commanding but sensitive by Robert Nelson(2) and strangely beautiful by Jeff Makin(3).

Fiona Halse was born in Sydney in 1974 and graduated from Monash University Fine Art Department in 1995. She has been the recipient of the Ella Donald Memorial Scholarship in 1993, Ian Potter Grant 1996. She has also been included in the Sotheby’s Emerging Artist’s Auction 1997 and Mornington Peninsula National Works on Paper, 1998.

(1)Robert Motherwell, August26 1991
(2)Nelson, Robert, Visual Acumen Displayed by Artists with Confidence, The Age, 3 December 1999,pgA17
(3)Makin, Jeff, Choice Views, Herald Sun 10 August 1998,pg98

DATES:                 28 August-15 September, 2002
OPENING:            Saturday 31 August 3-5pm
LOCATION:         69 Smith Street, Fitzroy 3065
HOURS:               11am-5pm Wednesday to Saturday , 12pm-5pm Sunday
WEBSITE:           www.vicnet.net.au/~69 smith
CONTACT:          69 Smith Street Gallery- 69smith@mail.com
Co-ordinator, Michael Brennan (03) 9747 3438
Secretary Felicity Gordon (03) 9844 0580

(Media Release) Nord Sud Exhibition, Gamma Space, 2001

NORD______________________SUD
www.gammaspace.com.au/nordsud.html
sud_nord@hotmail.com
recent work by
JASON HAUFE&FIONA HALSE
@gammaSPACE
OPENING 7 March 2001,  6-8pm
EXHIBITION 5 -17 March,  2001
Level 1, 141 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

The work of Jason Haufe and Fiona Halse shows the traditional distinction between the Romantic and the Classical is more of a result of the artist’s temperament than the subject being dealt with.

Haufe and Halse are responding to the pictorial issue of figure ground relationships, revolutionized by the advent of Cubism.

The material in Halse’s collage is the equivalent to the painterly abstraction of the New York School. Each piece of paper represents both a visual; function and its own material reality, unlike in cubism where the material is used to depict objects.

Haufe is exploring figure/ground relationships through the use of a modernist grid, with different depth of support exploring the relationships of painting to wall.

Halse has been included in the Sotheby’s Emerging Artists Auction in 1997 and the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery National Works on Paper Exhibition in 1998. Her work has been described as….. ‘commanding but sensitive’[1]… by Robert Nelson and as…… ‘strangely beautiful’[2]….by Jeff Makin.

Haufe is currently represented by Murdoch and Barclay. He has had six solo shows since completing his honours degree five years ago. He has been included in the Salon De Refuses in 1998.

Haufe is to Halse what the North pole is to the South. Opposites attached to the same axis.


Any further enquiries please contact Fiona Halse/Jason Haufe pH: 96894092

[1] Nelson, Robert, Visual Acumen Displayed by Artists with Confidence, The Age, 3 December 1999, page A17
[2] Makin, Jeff, Choice Views, The Herald Sun, 10th August 1998 page 98

(Statement) Fiona Halse , Red Gallery, 2005

Fiona Halse
Recent Work
Red Gallery,  2005

Statement

I hope that through this exhibition the viewer can experience the versatility of line and the malleable nature of creating art.

My concerns are for the composition. The final product is the result of layered decisions. I was attracted to acrylic paint in the Savasana series because of its direct quick drying properties. Like drawing, forms can be quickly erased and reworked. The process of drawing in art, its malleable nature and its ability to transcribe instinctive decisions is important in my practice. This exhibition I hope will reflect a search to understand how to arrange harmonies, create meaningful form and to trace inner contours.

I feel I’ve taken Klees’ line for a walk and absorbed some of Kandinsky’s ideas of line changing to plane and rotating around points. I have always also been interested in Motherwell’s collages and Picasso’s versatile use of line to create space. In some of the works the golden mid-tone and the suspension in form has been influenced by Early Renaissance Icons and Japanese Calligraphy.

I have enjoyed understanding how one line can hold or push forward another and how this changes with either tone or color or thickness in form. A disappearing line or a open blurred mark can also create space, even positive form, if assembled sensitively. This exhibition is the result of a search to understand my own personal aesthetic language. The picture plane encompasses the boundaries to this game. Line to me traces the search.

Every line says “Here I am!” . Each holds its own, reveals its own eloquent features and whispers “Listen to my secret!”( Wassily Kandinsky)

Geelong Art Gallery Media Release

Metaphor and Configuration

Media release
…“ Everything appears to us in guise of a Figure. Even in Metaphysics ideas are expressed by means of symbolic figures. See how ridiculous it is then to think of painting without figuration. A person an object, a circle are all figures; they just react on us more or less intensely”…….
Picasso in conversation 1935

Every shape every decision made by each of these artists in this show is motivated by an effort to pluck out and suspend the reality and experience of their own existence.

Each mark and form is metaphoric.
The assemblage is the configuration.

Art then becomes an extension, an effort to suggest and capture an essence of human experience.

This show I believe displays an overview of this extension. The work varies from personal narratives to street scenes, but all face problems dealing with picture-making and honesty.

KELLY CLARKE is driven to retain the residue of the human figure’s emotion in abstract marks - like that of Fautrier

LISA DI PILLA’S expressiveness derives from her awareness of space and relationships between forms. The objects she uses suggest very personal symbols.

LITZA WATERS uses mark making as her device to capture a sense of movement and vitality of people and the streets. Like Rembrandt and Auerbach the quality of the paint captures the energy not the naturalistic form.

FIONA HALSE’S Sleeping Virgins are constantly re-invented becoming more about personal icons and changing forms within sleep.

The show I hope will display approaches to the figure which are not containing the figure within its own skin.
Instead our subject comes from our own sources, thoughts, feelings about life, these are distilled and molded into a personal approach. The human figure, our own self-portrait of our experience in this show is expressed metaphorically, for the essence in itself is malleable.

Fiona Halse


GEELONG ART GALLERY
3 - 21 March,  1999
W.Max Bell Community Gallery
Little Malop Street, Geelong, Vic, Australia
Mon-Fri 10.00am - 5.00pm
Sat - Sun 1.00pm - 5.00pm
Admission: $3 Adults, $7 Families, $1 Concession