Shirley Wayland Smith Jones

Michael Shirley, Hugh Wayland, Nell Smith and Murrumbidgee Jones present an eclectic mix of paintings, photographs and prints at the Shop Gallery Glebe from Friday 21 May to Wednesday 26 May.

A crossroads exhibition where four converging streets display different views of the world they’ve passed along the way. A journey through photography, collage and paint.

Collectively, this is their 2020 palette – whimsical, surreal and sublime.

Michael Shirley chooses vintage analogue cameras to make this suite of photographs exploring Katoomba, its people and environs. Evocative, impressionistic images. People disintegrating in film grain, melting in mist. Landscapes to fall into. Those who lunch and walk etched in hard sun and shadow.

Hugh Wayland’s high gloss colour saturated prints created from collages, delve into a menagerie of surrealism with a good dose of satire. Sourced from a plethora of 1950’s home maintenance manuals, science and technology visuals and the natural and animal kingdom, and juxtaposed to tell a different story from their origin.

Nell Smith’s works are painterly yet cartoony. Each painting has its origin in an experience, however tangential to final work, and like a frame lifted from a graphic novel hints at being part of a longer story. Social comment lurks among comically angry buildings, and by the side of the road as cars journey to who knows where for who knows what purpose. 

Murrumbidgee Jones paints on board and pays homage to Australia’s flora, fauna and culture with a whimsical take on our natural and man-made environs. Bright colours highlight the landscape as the ever present and all-seeing magpie guides us through an exaggerated and, at times, surrealistic world.

Shirley Wayland Smith Jones will be on at the Shop Gallery 112 Glebe Point Road, Glebe from Friday 21 May to Wednesday 26 May, 11am-5.30pm daily. The exhibition opening is on Friday 21 May 6pm-9pm.

For more information contact Warwick at:

geckosand@yahoo.com