Bekier returns with new exhibition

BALLARAT artist Tamara Bekier hasn’t let her age slow her down as she prepares to launch another of her art exhibitions at the Backspace Gallery, on 10 November.

The exhibition is titled Gossamer Threads and means an unusual connection between people and her long life, how we are all connected, even our thoughts, everything.

Since graduating from art school in 1982 Bekier has had around 20 exhibitions across the globe including Hong Kong, England, France and Australia.

“Now that I am 87, I concentrate on my painting and I have restricted showing them, but I have an exhibition about every three years,” she said.

When asked to describe her painting style, Bekier simply said, “I can’t, I haven’t developed a style really, yet, although people think that I have and they can tell it’s my work.”

Bekier only started painting in her midlife but progressed quite quickly.

“I started with oils when I graduated from art school, I absolutely loved the effect because when you put paint to canvas the luminosity comes alive and it is still there the next morning,” she said.

“Not so with acrylics, you put it on, great while it is still wet, then the next day the vibrancy is gone, so as consequence I work on it again for up to six days, or a year.”

Bekier’s work has been looked upon as a little on the dark side, but she disagrees with that description.

“I don’t look at them in that light, I am quite optimistic about life, but I am aware of the darker side of it because I went through dark times as a child during war torn Europe,” she explained.

“My Mother was Russian and my father was German, the two citizenships were at odds with the Russian authorities so they had to flee to another country.

“I was born St Petersburg, where we lived until the whole family was exiled to Kiev because my father never claimed Russian citizenship and the consequences of that is we were refugees from communist ruled Russia and in turn we had to live with our sponsors in Kiev, the capital of what is now Ukraine.”

This, Tamara said, has made her aware of peoples’ good side and the dark side and also their kindness.

“Through all the pain and all the atrocities I experienced as a ten-yearold child in Europe, from when the war started until I came to Australia at the age of 19, people were basically kind to me,” she said.

Gossamer Threads will open at the Backspace Gallery on Thursday, 8 November and will continue through to Sunday, 2 December.

You can meet the artist herself at the opening on Saturday, 10 November from 2pm to 4pm, which will feature entertainment by Melbourne band “The Nexus Project”, plus guest speakers.