The Drama of the Commonplace

As with earlier work by Carole Griffin, this series of painting reveal and celebrate the richness of the domestic interior.

Now, however, that richness is intensified by an even closer focus. In an intriguing shift of scale, she moves from the familiar human environment of doorways and rooms, to a kind of parallel universe of room-like spaces, and human-like occupants. Luminous colours glow out of the darkness; kitchen shelves and their contents are theatrically transformed; common objects lead to a double life as actors in a secret drama.

This ambiguity is further expressed by the play between the frames and between forms; the framing shelves within the frame if the picture; the patterns of beside and above and below; the convivial crowds in one framed space, and their absence in another; the clusters of real objects, and the resonant mystery of their shadows. And always, in counterpoint against the stillness of objects, runs the life of the brush-work.

Nothing, we learn from these paintings, is as it seems.

Education

1963 Fine Art Diploma Major in Painting and Drawing, National Art School, Sydney 1964 Diploma in Art Education, Sydney Teachers college
1981 Fine Art Higher Certificate Painting, East Sydney Technical College

Solo Exhibitions

1988 Holdsworth Contemporary Galleries, Sydney
1990 Holdsworth Galleries, Sydney
1994 Holdsworth Galleries, Sydney
1996 "Interiors", Michael Nagy Fine Art, Sydney
2000 "Beyond the Flowers", Michael Nagy Fine Art, Sydney
2003 "Interior Light" Glebe Healing Centre, Sydney

Group Exhibitions

1963 "Young Contemporaries", Blaxland Gallery, Sydney 1983 "The Nude", Gallery Anderson Gallery, Sydney
1989 "Inside The Greenhouse", Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney
1989 Grafton Drawing Show, Grafton Galleries, Grafton
1989 "The W.I.R.E.S. Exhibition", National History Museum, Sydney
1989 "Amnesty International Exhibition", Painters Gallery, Sydney
1990 "Visual Instincts", Holdsworthy Contemporary Galleries, Sydney
1993 Annual Women Artists Show, T.A.P. Gallery, Sydney
1994 Travelling Suitcase Exhibition No.1 & No.2 - Beijing Women's Conference, China
1996 Staff Exhibition - NAS, Cell Block Theatre, Sydney
1996 SWAN - Camperdown Gallery Sydney
1998 "Catalyst" - Woman's Art & Science Travelling Suitcase Exhibition
1998 Staff Drawing Show - Staff Drawing show - NAS Cell Block Theatre, East Sydney
2001 Skygarden Art Prize - Sydney
2002 The King's School Art Show - Selected Finalist, Sydney
2003 "The Studio Tradition" Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, Bathurst Regional Gallery, NAS
2003 "Reconnections" Drawings -Tafe Fine Art Staff- "Muse" Gallery, Sydney
2003 "Destination Drawing"- COFA, Sydney
2004 "Drawcard" Art Auction - National Art School, Sydney
2004 "The Studio Tradition"- National Art School, Sydney, Albury Regional Gallery