TREE-O Gallery in Raleigh opens its 10th Showcase exhibition from Saturday 23 July 2022, with Opening Night on that day from 4-6pm.

Welcoming the community to the gallery, the featured artists are all hoping to attend opening night.

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“Every Showcase exhibition at Tree-o Gallery brings together a unique combination of local artist works in a variety of creative mediums that we feel will resonate well with each other,” Sarah Andersen, Tree-o partner, told News Of The Area.

Oftentimes, a keen eye can spot a subtle recurring subject in each new collection.

“The combined works of the four headlining artists in our upcoming event will also allude to a bit of a theme, and will no doubt create some awe-inspiring and soul-warming spaces in our winter exhibition.

“David Hooper’s paintings depict our beautiful country from the dusty red west to the blues and greens of our own east coast and, using a ‘process of abstraction’, he keenly reproduces a three-part series of an initial photorealist painting again and again, becoming more abstract each time,” Sarah said.

There are three sculptors joining David, Nick Warfield, Alf Blakey and Dell Lennox – all are inspired by re-purposing and bringing a new beauty to found objects.

“Whether it be car bumper bars, dismantled furniture or other found objects that Nick uses to create his brilliantly captured character-filled creatures, the metal scrapyard bits and bobs that Alf artistically forms into animals, functional braziers (and more), or Mother Nature herself that throws-off the stunningly twisted pieces of timber that Dell spends time breathing life back into; all four artists could be said to be re-creating nature in different ways – and in this day and age when we should all be considering our impact on the environment, it is impressive and inspiring to see artists bringing such amazing pieces together using such a unique selection of materials,” she said.

Alf Blakey told NOTA, “My metallic artworks come together using found/scrap materials and inspiration can often come from a single item.

“The Eagle was born many moons after I had made some talons and a friend kept asking me where the rest of the bird was,” he said.

“The braziers (fire pits) started off relatively simply in the beginning, but as their popularity has grown, so too have my skills and designs.”

Artist Nick Warfield said, “The work that I will have on exhibition at the Tree-o Gallery is all done in a style and material that I am revisiting for the first time in years.

“I am particularly excited with the furniture work I am doing as I am flirting with the limitations of using one whole object such as a rocking chair or bar stool and using every ounce of that object (nothing more) to re-imagine it into something else.

“The Rocking Chair came together very quickly and with great fluidity and upon reflection instilled a sense of confidence in me that twelve years of art practice I might have actually learned something.

“I feel really stoked to be exhibiting amongst dear friends and new ones and to be able to showcase my work in the beautiful Tree-o Gallery that is run by some local legends,” he said.

Dell Lennox said, “Every piece of timber has its own journey and life cycle.

“I feel with intuition the forces of nature that have acted upon each piece I choose and slowly, I exact my own.

“I find great joy in working with and extending the life of each work I create.”

David Hooper told NOTA, “Water has always held a fascination for me, and painting water is a life-long challenge.

“Lately I have been pushing into painting it in its various ways – reflective, transparent, stormy and even abstracted.

“I am totally loving a fresh focus on my new home in NSW with its coastal, colourful landscapes, as well as my beloved North WA.”

The exhibition is on until November 2022.

By Andrea FERRARI