Turning a childhood passion into a career

Young local artist Kristoffer Houston is the Naracoorte Regional Art Gallery’s feature artist for the South Australian Living Artists (SALA) festival this year.

SALA is held annually for the month of August around the whole state and in 2024, almost 11,000 artists will showcase their work in 700 venues.

Kristoffer, 23, began practising art soon after finishing high school. Recently he has become more serious about becoming a fulltime artist.

“I’ve always had a passion for the arts in one form or another,” he said. “Throughout my childhood I would draw like any other kid it wasn’t until the end of high school where I was inspired by my mum’s art practice to pick up painting for myself.

“My mum Karen Houston kicked of my love for painting she got into painting before I did which really inspired me, other artist that inspire me include Frida Kahlo probably one of the most famous Mexican artists, Leonora Carrington British born artist and Salvador Dali who was known for his eccentricity.”

Subjects from nature in a surreal setting are his current interest but he also dabbles in photography and collage.

“My favourite genres to work in are surrealism and semi-realism but more recently I’ve tried abstract photography which I would like to dive more into,” Kristoffer said. “I work mostly in acrylic paint, but I have painted in oil paint which I plan to paint more with.”

Kristoffer’s SALA exhibition at the Naracoorte Gallery is called Fever Dream. It is a visual representation of hypnagogic hallucinations but most importantly it reveals an appreciation of nature.

Most of the inspiration or concepts come from unexpected places whether it be a cloud in the sky or wood patterns. Topics such as climate, the human condition and human connections with earth, all feature.

“Mental health is a recent exploration with the paintings, in fact creating the art is almost a way of therapy,” Kristoffer said.

“I hope that people will be surprised to see the creativity and imagination that explore in my work, people can expect to see my love for nature life and colour and maybe be surprised to see this sort of surreal art come from someone who lives in the country.”

And this exhibition is just a tase for the young artist about how a career in the field could look.

“I’m working on becoming a full time artist and hopefully start up my own website to sell original artwork and prints and work towards holding an art exhibition in Adelaide and maybe one day overseas in Britain’s Tate modern gallery.”

Supporting artist in the Gallery for SALA is Hatherleigh’s Selena Smith with her exhibition titled Rationally Recovered.

Selena held a joint exhibition with Diana Perkins, of Naracoorte, in the Millicent Gallery earlier this year and this is a follow on from this.

From an old barn she uses as her working studio, Selena brings her passion for recycling. She focusses on paper mixed with domestic discard and makes wonderful items such as flowers, figures and stars. These form the basis for her art installations.

Selena graduated from art school in 2006 and she has been involved in putting on art events and setting up a community driven studio in north Queensland. She has held numerous solo and group exhibitions and been an artist in residence in several states.

The Mt Gambier Times will profile Selena in more detail in an upcoming issue.

The Gallery is pleased to offer two free events with Selena during SALA month.

On Sunday, August 25, there will be a Walk and Talk at 11am to look at her exhibition and at 12noon there will be a Recycled Paper Flower Workshop.

Member for MacKillop Nick McBride opened these two exhibitions earlier this month and the exhibitions run until September1.

The Naracoorte Regional Gallery opens from Wednesday to Friday 10am to 4pm and Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 3pm.