Exhibition to explore the intense Southern Ocean

TORQUAY photographer Mick Sowry’s first solo exhibition ‘The Spark’ explores an intense period of grieving and loss with breathtaking and darkly dramatic images of the Southern Ocean.

Officially opening at Hoop Gallery in Torquay last month, the exhibition title ‘The Spark’ originates from a line in of one his own poems, written during an intense and “wrenchingly sudden” loss of his wife Sue to pancreatic cancer in 2019.

The dark themed large-scale images in his exhibition have been shot over the past four years and are informed my Mick’s “lifetime of loving the sea”.

 

Mr Sowry said the images go beyond capturing the beauty of the ocean and rather focusing on the ways that it can shape an identity.

“I hope it opens eyes to the wonder in the small as much as the majestic, revealing the things that we don’t take the time to see… including the quiet, catastrophe and calm of life on the coast,” Mr Sowry said.

With a camera nearby since his younger years, Mr Sowry has had surf photography commissioned by magazines and journals and also holds private collections in Australia and the United States.

Mr Sowry was also one of the creative directors of the ‘Great Ocean Road Quarterly’, a high quality original art, photography and literature journal published between 2013 and 2015.

Sally Groom, Chairperson of Surf Coast Art Space said Hoop Gallery was privileged to have Mr Sowry’s exhibition on display to coincide with the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach.

“We are honoured that Mick has chosen to exhibit his incredible photographs celebrating the beauty and power of the Southern Ocean here in Torquay,” Mrs Groom said.

“We wanted to stage an exhibition to mark the 60th anniversary of the Rip Curl Pro and as a Bells Beach regular, Mick’s exhibition is perfect for the occasion.

“It offers a unique perspective on the ways in which the ocean shapes our identity here on the coast”.

Locals can catch a free, live discussion with Mick at Hoop Gallery this evening (April 14) from 5-6:30pm.

The exhibition will be open this weekend from 10-4pm.

For more, head to surfcoastartspace.com.au/