Gabriella D'Abreau is a fine artist and illustrator who's preparing for her fifth gallery exhibition. Notably, all but her first have been with other artists. The latest, which will run at the Art Society's gallery in Federation Park from September 17�22, will be her biggest collaboration yet. Appropriately titled Emerge, it will feature six up-and-coming artists who've found that it helps their careers to work together.
"The reason why I decided to have as many people as that is really to have a kind of diversity in the exhibition in terms of the type of work and the style–because everybody has their own style," said D'Abreau, who conceived the exhibition and approached the five other artists.
D'Abreau creates bold and colourful pieces incorporating the human figure with abstract elements. AJ Roger makes pen and pencil drawings, often in black and white. Shauna Narine paints on calabash shells. Sarah Burrows, whose art was selected to be displayed on the wall of the Queen's Park Oval in 2009, works in a variety of media, including 3D paintings with butterflies that look like they can lift off from the canvas. Annelie Solis does stunning portraits of African, East Indian and Native American people. Halcian Pierre also does bright, bold paintings.
Getting the opportunity to exhibit is one of the challenges for an artist who isn't yet established. Being a member of the Art Society helps. The society organises member exhibitions and members can rent the gallery space at a discount.
Collaborations like Emerge are also useful: even with the discount, it's not cheap to rent the gallery space. Artists have to produce fewer pieces for a group show than they would for a solo show. Each artist participating in Emerge will show around ten pieces.
"By having six, it's less of a strain on us individually," said D'Abreau.Sarah Burrows exhibited with D'Abreau twice before. An electrical engineer and a single mother of a one-year-old, Burrows said her busy life leaves her no alternatives to group exhibitions."I work full time, so it's difficult to plan a full exhibition by yourself. It's not the easiest of things to organise," she said. "When you're on own you have to do everything by yourself, whereas in a group all that responsibility is split up.
"And I also like the dynamics of working with other artists," Burrows added. "I play off of them. We share ideas during the creative process."AJ Rogers at 21 is just starting his career as an artist.
"I am fairly new, so I don't want to do a [solo] show and no one comes," he said with a laugh.A group showing gives him an opportunity to learn and network, he said.
"Because for other people this is not their first showing, I get advice from them, and also they can bring new people to see my work, and I can meet new people," he said.Shauna Narine had only previously exhibited a few pieces of her work as part of Art Society member exhibitions and in booths at creative events.
"The importance of working as a group is that each of us has our individual networks, so it would be a combination of five networks–so the reach would be further than usual," she said.