More galleries

I've managed to squeeze in quite a few gallery visits in the last week or so. Here's a quick round-up of what I've been to.

Villian is the first place I visited during the week. Villian is another shop style gallery, similar to 696 in a way. They have some art but also supplement their range with clothing, magazines and books. It's a great store, and their current Munny exhibition of customised toys is well worth a look.

I wanted to check out a few rental spaces this, so I went to the Red Gallery in North Fitzroy, which was running an exhibition for students at Ballarat University. Nothing there really grabbed me, but it's a good exhibition space they have there. I guess some student exhibitions are potentially going to be a little hit and miss.

69 Smith Street was a gallery that Mark recommended I take a look at, as it's an artist run gallery that's also rental space. Mark's opinion was that galleries like this struggle to keep on putting on good exhibition, and will put anything on just to keep their calendar filled. Although their current exhibition, Shift, wasn't too bad.

While in Smith St I checked out the exquisite palette at St Luke's, the art supplies store. This a a great little exhibition of art painted onto wooden palettes. There's some fantastic pieces here, and exhibitions like these, focussing on a simple idea, are always going to have a strong appeal with the masses. From what i hear, the opening of this was a huge success - there seems to be a lot of red dots on the art list, too.

In the city I visited the Westspace gallery, which was running 3 small exhibitions. also checked out the Paper Shadow gallery on Franklin St in the city, to see the Doze Green exhibition. This is a new gallery, which I liked.

The clandestine alleyway entry of galleries like Paper Shadow has a strong appeal to me. I get a real enjoyment out of the discovery of a place like this. I guess I'm like this with a lot of things. Shops, restaurants, even music that is off the beaten track is appealing to me.

The great thing about Melbourne is that there is so much art to see even when you're not in an actual gallery. I've been there before, but i went back and took a look at the citylights project, which I just love. But even just the back streets in the city has some very cool art. I could wander around for hours.

I've been writing this blog for almost a month now, and in that time have seen a fair smattering of galleries. Plenty more to see, but I'm starting to get a feel for what I'd like to do myself. In the next week I'll be sharing a few ideas with you, and would love your feedback. Stay tuned.