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Heather Ellyard: Even for Colour

This spring, Melbourne-based artist Heather Ellyard brings beauty to Wilson Street Gallery, Newtown, in her new exhibition, Even for Colour. Ellyard?s visual poetry moves beyond pure delight in colour, into meanings, symbols and texts that are indelible.

Heather Ellyard writes:

Do not misquote me here, but I will say that hope and love are the undercoating of this exhibition, invisible but sustaining. …….And with equal darkness and light, one on each shoulder, I can still despair at the madness and misfortune all around me, writ large on every continent, or stinking in the dark and mouldy cracks of terrorism. The traumas of our time would be unbearable, if not for colour, but even for colour…

The centrepiece of the exhibition, Archive of Sighs, was a finalist in the national 2010 Blake Prize for the spiritual in art. Gallery Manager, Michelle Perry, said that she was thrilled to show this work at Wilson Street Gallery. “This library of fragments casts its own spell of wonder, yearning and beauty. It is profoundly moving”, she said.

Boston-born Heather Ellyard has been living and working in Australia since 1970, exhibiting in Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra and Melbourne. She is also an art reviewer and writer. Her major piece, Inventories and Commentaries, was acquired by the National Gallery of Australia in 2009, joining the growing number of public institutions which hold her work.

Even For Colour runs until Sunday 21 November at Wilson Street Gallery, 30-34 Wilson Street Newtown, near Erskineville Rd. For further information contact Michelle Perry on 0410 426 886 or info@wilsonstreetgallery.com.au