Two New Exhibitions: Jon Campbell, Matthew Griffin

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TWO NEW EXHIBITIONS AT THE PHYSICS ROOM

yeah yeah yeah
Jon Campbell
28 July – 25 August 2007

Jon Campbell, 'Save Our Pool'

Opening preview: Friday 27 June 2007, 5.30pm

Renowned for his pop-inspired, witty and compelling DIY suburban art, Jon Cambpell’s work revolves around the simple act of sampling words and images from the everyday world around him and making meaning from them. As an artist and musician, music informs his art practice and vice-versa—and it’s fair to say that a rock ’n’ roll vibe emanates from his work. Campbell’s work has a sense of humour and critical optimism; if it were a song perhaps it would be late-Beatles sampled by Hank Williams.

At The Physics Room Campbell presents a range of new and recent work that offers a sense of the breadth and energy of his practice. From wall paintings to canvas, text works to flags, his work is playfully indulgent in its everyday musings and backyard philosophising. Jon loves Annie is scrawled across one canvas like a love message carved into a high school text book, whereas in other works logos and signs are sampled and painted in the tradition of American pop-art but with a suburban Aussie undertone. The yeah flag, literally a flag emblazoned with the word ‘yeah’ in hot pink, was championed by A Constructed World through an online petition to be the new Australian flag. Cambpell’s work always has this sense of agency, bound up with a boldly colourful and playful sense of humour.

Since graduating from Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, in 1985 with a Graduate Diploma in Painting, Campbell has exhibited widely in both group and solo shows at commercial galleries, public galleries, art schools, artist run spaces and cafes. He has been awarded several prizes and grants including, Greene St Studio, NYC (Australia Council), Development Grant (Australia Council), New Work grant (Arts Victoria), the Herald Sun Art Prize and the Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship. Since the mid 1980s he has played in bands such as, The King Jerklews, The Monaros, The Colonial V-Knees and Adawo. He currently writes songs and performs with his band, Gloss Enamel. Jon Campbell is represented by Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.

Don’t miss the chance to see Jon Campbell’s band Gloss Enamel perform a one-night only gig after the exhibition opening at The Loons bar, Lyttelton. This is a chance for art lovers to experience some art music!

The Physics Room is producing a substantial catalogue to accompany the exhibition. This will be available at the opening.

For further information on this exhibition please contact The Physics Room on 03 379 5583 or email physicsroom[at]physicsroom.org.nz

The Physics Room receives major funding from Creative New Zealand/Toi Aotearoa.

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TTOMMORROWW WILL BE DIFFERENT
Matthew Griffin
28 July – 25 August 2007

Opening preview: Friday 27 June 2007, 5.30pm

At The Physics Room, Matthew Griffin, one of Melbourne’s most exciting young artists continues to draw upon pop-cultural myths and legends with a critical edge and wry sense of humour. His installation brings together a selection of sculptural and video works that riff off Norwegian Black Metal’s obsession with death in an ongoing interest with society’s paranoias and taboos around this subject.

One video work features a woman playing music by Burzum, an electronic project by death metal musician Count Grishnackh (produced while in prison for killing fellow musician Euronymous, allegedly motivated by jealousy over the fact that Euronymous had a more evil reputation), while reading accounts of Euronymous’s murder. Another video work has been described by Griffin “a sort of blow up meets Benny Hill photo shoot” loaded with black metal logos. The installation is an exploration into the nature of time, perception, and the prediction of future events, with a melancholic parlour trick twist. Griffin creates a sense of the frozen moments before the fall.

Matthew Griffin completed a Bachelor Fine Arts (Painting) at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1998. He has held several solo exhibitions including Chinese Democracy, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne; Das Bogus Journey, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne; and Chivalrous Romances, Il Ponte Contemporanea, Rome. Selected group exhibitions include Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; HIGH TIDE: Currents in Contemporary Australian Art, Zakheta National Gallery of Art, Poland; Big in Japan, Gallery Side 2, Tokyo; and Family First, Victorian Collage of the Arts Gallery, Melbourne and The Physics Room, Christchurch. Matthew Griffin is currently a Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces Studio Artist and is represented by Uplands Gallery, Melbourne.

For further information on this exhibition please contact The Physics Room on 03 379 5583 or email physicsroom[at]physicsroom.org.nz

The Physics Room receives major funding from Creative New Zealand/Toi Aotearoa.

ENDS

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