New exhibitions explore the art of architecture

Three exciting new exhibitions will open at Noosa Regional Gallery on November 13.

They continue the Gallery’s series of exhibitions celebrating Australian artists. 

Daniel Agdag, Sets for a Film I'll Never Make (dimensions variable) 2019, CODA Apeldoorn.

Irish-born Queensland artist Miriam Innes brings to Noosa her recently acclaimed work, New York Rambling.

Innes is internationally renowned for her large-scale hyper-realistic charcoal sketches of the built environment.

Measuring more than 25 metres, New York Rambling took two years to draw. It will wrap around the Gallery’s walls creating an immersive installation celebrating the New York City skyline.

Relishing the ‘artfulness of the everyday’, Innes transports audiences to the iconic city and invites a closer examination of its famed architectural splendour and hustle and bustle.

“Innes insists that the viewer is implicated in her work,” says Gallery Director Michael Brennan.

“Her intention is for the audience to ‘experience’ her work rather than passively observe it.

“By revealing the rich complexity of the cityscape, Innes challenges the viewer to rethink the beauty of the built environment.”

In a similar theme, Brisbane artist Elysha Rei’s new exhibition also draws attention to the often neglected details found in suburban structure.

Furusato: Patterns from Pilgrimage features a new series of large-scale hand-cut paper works that map Rei’s personal journey through Japan.

Retracing her ancestral steps during a recent artist residency, Rei documented patterns she found on manhole covers in each locality she visited, not realising at the time how they would inspire this new work.

“The journey (through Japan) was a life changing experience for me,” she says.

“I realised my purpose as an artist was to continue the connection with my Japanese heritage, through studying and celebrating the Japanese design aesthetic within my work.”

Practicing the ancient Japanese art of ‘Kirie’ or papercutting, there is no ability to erase lines or paint over a mistake, says Rei.

“I am forced to trust my decisions and to invest in my designs with conviction.”

Also working intuitively with paper is Melbourne artist Daniel Agdag. Sitting at the nexus of sculpture and motionography, Agdag’s exhibition, Miscellaneous Assemblies reveals what he describes as the “mechanical manifestations of (my) thoughts and ideas in relation to the world around me.”

Through his fantastical and whimsical forms of imagined mechanisms and structures, Brennan says, “Agdag creates a paradox of fragility and strength, his architectural forms and machines are realised by utilising a medium that is essentially paper.”

Miriam Innes: New York Rambling; Elysha Rei Furusato: Patterns from Pilgrimage, and Daniel Agdag: Miscellaneous Assemblies will officially open at Noosa Regional Gallery on November 13. They will be on show until January 23, 2021.

Book your free ticket to the official opening via the website. Entry to the Gallery is free. Visit the Gallery's website.