10 December 2022 – 4 March 2023
The Perth Centre for Photography is pleased to present GR#D, by Gera Woltjer opening at 6 pm, Friday, 9 December 2022.
Long preoccupied with the regular and universal pattern of the grid, Perth-based artist Gera Woltjer has been scouring sites of urban architecture, construction and everyday domestic spaces, for grid patterns and grid-like materials. Her new print and photographic exhibition GR#D invites visitors to follow her on this visual journey, learning to appreciate just how fundamental grids are to the way we build, organize, and even think.
Curating materials in a bowerbird-like fashion, Woltjer has built up a treasure trove of both quotidian and specialist grids: square tiled panels, fencing, mesh, woven textiles, netting and tapes. Through layering, photographing and crucially, playing with these materials, the artist has produced a series of images and printed samples that appear to sit between art, design and experiment. The result is an exhibition that rejoices in the intricacy, repetition and mystery of the grid.
Gera Woltjer is a meticulous collector: her studio overflows with found and carefully researched materials; her sketchbooks are dense with notes, plans and drawings; her camera and computer are full of images of the often-overlooked patterns, colours and forms of the world around us. Now based in Perth, Woltjer began her practice in the Netherlands, taking a masters-level degree in Fine Art Education, and training across multiple design media for a graduate certificate. Here she developing her strong intuition for working with colour. Employing photography, video, textiles and drawing, Woltjer began to nurture the interest in the patterns of the built environment, that would soon become a life-long fascination.
The particular shapes that pique her notice are regular: grids, fences, tiles, pool lanes. On first glance these are rigid, containing structures. However, after hours of experimentation in the studio, Woltjer is able to coax larger narratives to the surface. Collected, layered, photographed, printed and carefully arranged, Woltjer’s materials begin to tell a story about the patterns people use to organise their belongings, their surroundings, even their thoughts, and to what extent the patterns and rules that govern these activities can be altered. For the viewer, Woltjer’s works provide a sense of optical illusion: patterns that at first seem systematic are allowed to unfold, warp and frolic.
Selected Australian and international exhibitions: Projekt3drei, Gedok in Karlsruhe, Germany (2022), Tekenkabinet XS in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2020), Abstracted, FLUX Gallery, Perth WA (2019), C R O S S I N G 2 at Gallery Smith PS in Melbourne (2018) and Coördinaten, the Netherlands (2017). Woltjer’s work is represented in collections including Artbank Australia, the Artists Books Collection, State Library of Queensland and the Geraldton-Greenough Art Collection.