Gallery showcases artistic variety

A directness is at the heart of exhibition, retail, workshop, and arts therapy space Gallery 10’s latest display showcasing five Ballarat-connected creatives.
Launched in early March, the space’s RAW exhibition features about 70 works from five artists as well as mixed media works from curator and gallery founder Linda Franklin.
Showcasing pastels, paintings, photography, ceramics, printmaking and sculpture work, she said there’s a connection between the varied creative mediums.
“Whilst the works are all very different, there’s a unifying theme with how the artists all work in a very instinctual manner,” she said.
“It’s this raw aspect. They don’t even know each other but there’s a directness in how each of them engage with their materials.”
The artists on display include longtime local ceramicist and former Federation University lecturer Pete Pilven, Ballarat International Foto Biennale founder Jeff Moorfoot, upcycling creative Jackie Gorring, pastel drawer and painter Stephen Beaumont, and acrylic artist Tonya Blizzard.
Displaying about a dozen of his ceramic works, Pilven said his pieces, like much of his output, is a continued exploration of a favoured topic of his.
“I’m always working around a similar theme which is basically the history of the goldfields and contact between early Wadawurrung people and the Europeans,” he said.
“I hope I can incite some reflection regarding Ballarat’s mining history. Most residents are aware and it’s pretty hard to ignore.
“My work is fairly coarse, grainy, rough, it’s not slick or polished by any means.”
RAW will remain on show until Saturday 27 April and the gallery is open Thursdays to Saturdays from 11am to 5pm.