A great show which unfortunately is now finished at Liverpool Street Gallery, 243a Liverpool Street, East Sydney, 16 November – 21st November, 2013. Really beautiful and sophisticated ceramics by Japanese ceramic artist, Ken Mihara, complimented by reductive emblematic still life and seascape paintings, by Kevin Lincoln. Both body of works interplay and mirror one another with a reductive poetic and subtle palette.

Ken Mihara, ‘Serenity in Clay’

http://www.liverpoolstgallery.com.au/public_panel/exhibition.php?id_EXH=142

“The aesthetic qualities of serenity and the sublime coalesce within Mihara’s work. In essence, these qualities are the scents of Japan, a culture which has traditionally searched for beauty within wabi-sabi austerity, spiritual simplicity, and the cherishing of patina. The natural landscapes of his high-fired stoneware facades were borne through multiple and extremely difficult kiln-firings, with each firing revealing a new element to a work’s clay flavour. His new forms exhibit a stark, bulb-esque minimalism. Mihara’s new works pulsate with a relaxed and assured confidence in his own. Furthermore, the new work also exhibits a far greater range of tones, from the poetically austere to vivid oranges and blues, which are a result of a revamped firing technique that he has further tweaked from the experiments of his past Kigen (Genesis) series. His deeply spiritual works poignantly strike at the heart, and his new works exhibit the artist leaning further towards minimalistic simplicity.” Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo

All multi-fired stoneware, ‘Kigen (Genesis)#3’, 23 x 14.5 x 39.5 cm, ‘Kigen (Genesis)#4’, 42 x 23.5 x 26.5 cm, ‘Kodak (pulse)#4’, 41 x 19.5 x 30.5 cm, ‘Kigen (genesis)#1’, 74.5 x 20.5 x 44 cm, ‘Kei (Mindscape)#2’, 43 x 31.5 x 41 cm, ‘Kodah (Pulse)#5’, 25 x 19.5 x 24 cm

Kevin Lincoln, ‘Still Life and Landscapes’

http://www.liverpoolstgallery.com.au/public_panel/exhibition.php?id_EXH=143

“Ghosts of still-life are held within the minimal abstracts. The sensuous curve is perhaps a detail of the edge of a bowl against a vase, or the strong horizontal line where a bottle sits on a table. But they need not be read as such, the artist instead demands that we allow the weight within each work to take hold, feel the density of each colour, each form and take the time to allow a response to develop within us. Lincoln’s paintings are not a quick fix — they are breathtakingly obtuse. Generally more textured than the meticulous surfaces of the abstract paintings, the elements in the still-life paintings have a disconcerting solidity against the indistinct glowing backgrounds on which they sit. Like a miracle, wine and fishes hover in an apparition on the canvas. The intimacy engendered, even in the most expansive of the still-life paintings, is borne from the personal references the artist places within each work. An invitation to the exhibition of an admired artist, a familiar pot from the artist’s collection, a bowl of figs or a shiny aubergine bought for lunch, these items are as much a glimpse into the artist’s life as the shadowy self-portrait reflected in a mirror.” Styles and forms – Contemporary Australian Painting, Shandong Publishing Press, China, 2004.

‘Two Sake Bottles’, 40 x 46 cm, ‘Freycinet Peninsula’, 76.5 x 92 cm, ‘Recherche Bay Tasmania’, 86.5 x 112 cm