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Join the artists for nibbles and drinks to celebrate the opening night of 'Here, Somewhere'.Annie Irvine, George Howlett and Alexander Beetle’s core motivation as Artists, is to be greatly affected by their surroundings. Their work, although different in visual nature, is linked deeply to their experience of their outside world. It is only half of the process to “see” your surroundings, the second half is to render an inner language into a perceptible form.
In 'Here, Somewhere' the Artists speak from their unique place of inspiration, resulting in three “somewheres” conversing in the same room at once. Annie Irvine, absorbed by the vastness and the ancient forms of the East Kimberley, her home for 15 years, explores it with vivid colour and arresting depths. George Howlett’s link to the urban neon monuments of our cities, affords us light and alluring colour in otherwise desolate places. Whilst Alexander Beetle, a seed collector by trade, utilises alarming colour contrasts on raw hessian to covey his existence, consumed by a forest of Jarrah trees. Those of which in this environmental crisis are under such threat.
'Here, Somewhere' is an exhibition that seeks to provide you a look into these Artist’s somewheres, and invites you to consider yours.
ABOUT ANNIE IRVINE
Shifting light over vast landscapes, ancient forms, spaces and silence underpins a lot of my work. These experiences derive from living and travelling in the East Kimberley for the past 20 years. While taking cues from landscape, my works has evolved into an exploration of colour, solidity and light with paint on surfaces and the tension between background and foreground.
Born in WA, I have lived here most of my life, in Perth, Geraldton, Wyndham and now Bremer Bay. I have painted throughout my life, alongside working as a general practitioner in medicine and raising children. Apart from studying Fine Arts for 1 year at Curtin in the 1990s I have had no formal training.
I have exhibited intermittently since 1980 including 2 solo shows and several joint shows at Margaret River Gallery in 2010 and a solo show at Gallows Gallery in 2011. I have shown in various spaces over the past years in Kununurra and Wyndham in the East Kimberley, as well as in some small private shows in Perth.
Currently, I am fortunate, and excited, to have a studio at Artsource where I am able to focus on and develop my work.
ABOUT GEORGE HOWLETT
I am a Western Australian visual artist based in Fremantle with a solid track record of exhibitions, site-specific installations and mural projects.
The concerns in my artwork draw on abstract and figurative aesthetics where colour, light and shape operate to activate, enliven and enhance any given space – whether that be a canvas, art gallery or public space. Humour, irony and reference to popular culture are often implied in my work.
ABOUT ALEXANDER BEETLE
Story Of An Artist
“The Troubadour” Right Brain Biography
Alexander Beetle is a rambling Dwellingup Cowboy. An artistic troubadour. He wonders…Seeking to encounter ideas of a day dream like nature. Nursing them to health under a heat
lamp, setting them wild and free in a cloud free art world scene so serene. A poet with a painted brush behind the ear. He engages with his mind cell, reaching out to all who would listen and look. Alexander Beetle wears spurs on his joggers, not to ride horses but because he takes joy in the tinkling sound they make, affectionately referring to them as wind chimes for walking. The world is his studio, the human experience, although filtered, is steeped in his work. A multidisciplinary marvel, gripped to his cornucopia of creation, the life raft in his sea.
“Working Class Hero” Left Brain Biography
Alexander Beetle, born in the ‘Big Smoke’ in 1996 now resides and works in ‘The Bush’. He graduated art school in 2016 after acquiring the reprehensible qualities associated with being an Artist. He entered into the professional context, engaging in multiple group shows, building friendships and studio visitors. Alexander became more interested in the idea of collaborative exhibitions, taking great satisfaction in working with other creative minds towards a common thought. After securing a professional studio space attached to a gallery in 2017, he was drawn to the idea of a solo exhibition, he dedicated his time there developing a project titled “False Alarm” to be shown in 2018. Parallel to this time, Alexander began to include performances as an aspect of his work, seeking direct intentional engagement with the audience. In 2024 a year he again engaged with his peers and community in his second solo exhibition titled “I’ve Got The Blues”. A series of large scale unstretched hessian paintings where the audience is invited to “hang out the washing”, as it were, to continue to dry on a hills hoist inside the gallery walls. In recent years Alexander has used his ‘real job’ as Native Seed Collector to retreat and inform his every day, seeking refuge in folk music and poetry as way to communicate the artistic mind.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Moores Building, 39 Henry St, Fremantle WA 6160, Australia,Perth, Western Australia, Fremantle