Art Express

 

Persons of Perception; Avoid Things Coloured Red; One and Five Pencils; A Bunch of Paintings Containing Lessons for the Future - detail view

Tal Chodos - Mariah College

Today at work, instead of having our Monday morning meeting in the office. We went out to see Art Express instead (yes, I do have a cool job thank you very much!). I've been a bit of a regular attendee of the show over the years, from my hopeful visits in year 9, 10 and 11. To my more bitter visit post year 12 when my work didn't make the grade! ; )

Untitled (Dialogue with Average Significance)  - detail view

Tara Rose Gurisik - Wyndham College

Dragster
Joshua Warren - Barrenjoey High School
 
This year I was quite blown away by the standard of work. To be honest, a lot of years I've been, there's been a lot of coverage given to some, well, to be honest, quite derivative artworks. (you know, Bill Henson lookalikes etc). Or, they've stuffed it full of too many pieces, all crammed into a small space.

Arpeggio
Belinda Bortolin - Terrigal High

Precious Cargo

Cassandra Simonetti - Santa Sabina College

This year, it is relatively sparsely hung, and overall the standard of work was exceptionally high, and really original....then I started to look closer at the school names where the students were from. It seemed to me to be a massive representation from some of the top private schools in the state (mainly Sydney). Knox, Ascham, Queenwood etc. While not taking away from the achievements of these students, I can't help but wonder whether these entries were hung because of their gallery-standard presentation that these students could afford to do...? Is that a terrible thing to wonder?