15 -16 April, at Luna Studio, 465 King Street Newtown, Sydney.

A group show featuring works by KIM, Joanna Durney Sanz, Tatiana Pentes, Simon Weir, and Geoffrey Weary with life drawings inspired by El Rocco jazz cellar will open on Saturday 15 April 5pm at Luna Studio in Newtown, Sydney with a live guitar performance by virtuoso Paneye and digital screen montage.

Luminous Bodies is the first exhibition from Studio Cartes Blanches, a collective of artists emerging from El Rocco Jazz Cellar in Kings Cross, where Australian Jazz Modal and Free Jazz began in 1957 and in the footsteps of the Yellow House which housed an artists’ collective in 1950s Sydney.

The show is a celebration of two years of life drawing in the intimate jazz cellar, where an active community of artists, life models, and musicians continue to create together a unique collection of artworks, infused with the spirit of jazz improvisation and spontaneity.

Artist KIM explains the ambiance of the jazz cellar salons:

“The intimate setting of the cellar is translated into the artworks. Models are in close proximity to the artists, while live musicians inspire and provide a tempo for art practice. The original artworks on show represent poses of between 5 and 20 minutes of intense creativity.”

Luminous Bodies is also a celebration of two years of online life drawing classes featuring international models from Argentina, the UK, the Czech Republic, Russia, Spain, and Australia. The COVID pandemic, paradoxically, created a virtual space where life drawing experienced a renaissance, bringing people together in a virtual creative space.

The group show features unique works by KIM, Joanna Durney Sanz, Tatiana Pentes, Simon Weir, and Geoffrey Weary and is open daily from 10am – 5pm, 15 and 16 April, at Luna Studio, 465 King Street Newtown.

An electronic montage of the artworks will screen on a digital interactive screen in the gallery.

Media inquiries KIM e: Kimnn09@gmail.com
Follow @Studio_Cartes_Blanches on Instagram.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

JOANNA DURNEY SANZ
Joanna studied Fine Art at the University of Sydney and received a Certificate in Drawing from the National Art School, Sydney. She also holds a Graduate Diploma in Design from the University of Technology, Sydney and has worked as a graphic designer. Joanna was a finalist in the Blue Thumb Digital Art Prize, Hornsby Prize and Willoughby Art Prizes, and has won prizes at Hornsby and Parramatta Art Society Exhibitions. In 2022 she held a solo exhibition at Tiliqua Tiliqua Gallery (artist-run) in Enmore featuring lyrical abstract artworks and life drawings.

KIM
KIM is an artist, art director and designer architect who graduated from the Beaux Arts faculty of Architecture in Paris. In 2011, KIM created Cartes-Blanches, a collective of designers which participated in the Vivid Light Festival from 2011 to 2013, creating interactive electronic art installations (Artificial Light Form), (Cloudscape) (WeSeeSaw) and set design, ILTS (The Memory Room) in 2013. KIM digital art was also displayed in Perth from 2017 to 2021 for Urban Screening. Since 2019, KIM has art directed Studio Cartes Blanches, continuing his work on the form of the human body within the framework of Life Drawing.

TATIANA PENTES
Tatiana is a digital artist in the electronic interactive medium, with an inter/national exhibition record for over a decade. These new mixed media works were produced over an intense two year period 2021 – 2023 at the El Rocco Jazz Cellar, Kings Cross, Sydney with Studio Cartes Blanches. They are a homage to her late father Serge Ermoll (Sergei Ermollaeff) a Shanghai-born Sydney jazz pianist and composer. His first album ‘Blown’ at the Rocco: Saturday Night’ was recorded live in the jazz room in 1968. Explore strangeblackbox.net to find out more.

SIMON WEIR
Simon Weir is Associate Dean at the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney. Weir has exhibited paintings and drawings for over twenty years with work held in private collections nationally and internationally.

GEOFFREY WEARY
Geoffrey’s creative work has been in the fields of experimental film and photography. Recently he has extended his practice into the medium of drawing, with a specific interest in rendering the human form. Working with charcoal, pastel, conté and pencil, he prefers a spontaneous and often improvised way of drawing the body. Participation in life drawing sessions with Studio Cartes Blanches at the El Rocco Jazz Cellar, Kings Cross, has facilitated these different ways of drawing.

Follow the individual artists on instagram at: @kim_artdesign, @tatjanapentez, @simon_weir, @geoffreyweary and @joannadurneysanzart.

Luna Studio Newtown, 15-16 April 2023