Melbourne's Colour Factory Gallery is showing works by Carlo Chechi and Belgian Wouter Van de Voorde through January and February.
The Colour Factory Gallery in the Melbourne inner city suburb of Fitzroy is running two exhibitions through January and February. Italian Carlo Chechi’s ‘Colour & Harmony’, an exploration of 19th century gum bichromate printing, is running until January 31, then ‘Still and silent’ by Wouter Van de Voorde, featuring his atmospheric landscapes, will run from February 5 to 28. ‘Colour & Harmony’ follows a group of circus performers who teach acrobatics in Florence.
Chechi examines the performers' unusual lives during both training and in day to day actvities, revealing a surreal and intimate portrait of this family and their friends. Earlier this year, Chechi exhibited at Onyx Gallery in Bejing. He has also exhibited widely throughout Europe, and recently participated in a workshop at Gold St Studios in Trentham, Victoria, under Ellie Young. Chechi is interested in traditional photographic printing techniques and has chosen gum bichromate for this work. He says this 19th century technique was chosen “to pay homage to the unique and colourful lives which the performers lead and lends itself quite literally to their layered existence”.
Wouter’s unusual and languid landscape images are not traditional representations, and capture quirky, calm scenes of stillness, often diffused in mist, rather than grand, picturesque vistas. Belgian photographer Wouter Van de Voorde started out as a painter in his homeland before discovering that photography offered him more creative freedom and opportunity for introspection than his original medium.
Colour Factory Gallery, 409-429 Gore St, Fitzroy, is open Monday to Friday, 11-5pm & Sat 1-4pm. Ph: (03) 9419-8756, or visit www.colourfactory.com/gallery
Image by Wouter Van de Voorde.
Image by Wouter Van de Voorde.
Image by Carlo Chechi.
Image by Carlo Chechi.