Entering into Mowbray's Poimena Gallery visitors are instantly greeted by boundary-pushing, abstract artworks lining the walls through the 46 intricate, yet captivating pieces for Image_Object.
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The exhibit opened as part of Mona Foma 2020 on Thursday and features works examining the relationship between visual and physical in non-objective works.
It includes works from Australian artists, including Launceston and Tasmanian artists, the Netherlands, United States, Switzerland, England, Italy, Germany and New Zealand.
The exhibit's curator, and one of the contributing artist's, Paul Snell said bizarrely one Italian artist actually struggled to ship his artwork for the exhibit as flooding in Venice stopped him from getting to a post office.
"Most artworks, it can be argued, are fusions of imagery and objecthood," he said.
"Some of them have three-dimensional elements or sculptural elements or even within their two dimensionality there is still reference to the three dimensions.
"This exhibition reveals an increasing emphasis upon texture and surface qualities.
"The predilection for large areas of undifferentiated or barely fluctuating colour, the exploitation of the edge, of the shaped or moulded support, and the physical juxtaposition of disparate or borrowed elements."
The plain white walls behind the artworks add a sense of depth and perception to each piece that could not be achieved without the minimalist approach of the gallery's interior.
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Mr Snell said the exhibit's size brought interest in the materials used by the artists, with four artists from different corners of the world utilising cardboard in their artworks.
He said the exhibit brought together a broad range of mediums and approaches to abstraction.
"It's sort of this idea where some are purely two dimensional but then they sit alongside others that are really obviously pushing into three-dimensional or just slightly, there's this play between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional non-objective art," he said.
"For the viewer the interest lies in the variety of materials, the way different artists respond to a fairly minimalist aesthetic and using the idea of the three-dimensional aspect as well.
"I had an idea for the show and I knew some of the artists but a lot or 95 per cent I don't know and so it became almost a rolling collective," he said.
"I knew what I wanted but over time it kept on evolving, I thought I'd stop at 20 and then 30 and then I thought I wanted a multi-wall hang so I wasn't sure how it would fit."
Fast Facts:
What: Image_Object
When: January 16-19, 10am to 3pm. Reopens January 28-February 27.
Where: Poimena Gallery at Button Street, Mowbray.
