Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei Exhibition

For our wedding anniversary I decided that I would love to go and see the Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei exhibition that is currently on at the National Gallery of Victoria International (NGV).

As we entered the the gallery we were confronted with a huge sculpture by Ai Weiwei that looked like radiating light.

The photo doesn't do it justice but you can tell from the following photo that it was actually made up of hundreds of silver bikes.

The exhibition was very big and actually took up two exhibition spaces. On entering the second area we saw a beautiful display of bronze statues by Ai Weiwei that were replicas of the Chinese zodiac animal heads that used to be displayed in Beijing. They looked very impressive against the black wall.

I had never really been an Andy Warhol fan but I learnt during the exhibition that his work was not about being high art but it was all about social commentary. Suddenly his work made a lot more sense to me. Ai Wei Wei is a current artist and so his work has taken the social commentary aspect even further.

Here is an icon image of Andy Warhol's soup can screen print.

Andy Warhol self portrait 1986

Here is a design by Ai Weiwei that looked like a pretty pattern in gold but if you look more closely it is actually images of security cameras and hand cuffs.

After viewing the exhibition we walked alongside the Yarra River to find a place to eat lunch. The streets were decorated for the Chinese New Year and had lovely lanterns of the Chinese zodiac signs.

We went into the entrance of Crown Casino because they always have lovely displays in there. This time it was also decorated for the Chinese New Year and at the top of the staircase was a monkey because it is the year of the Monkey.

My husband and I are both Monkeys! I hope that means we are going to have a good year.

They had all the other zodiac animals as well. Here is some of them.

After lunch we went across to the NGV Australian Gallery at Federation Square. There was no particular exhibition on at the moment so we wandered about the gallery looking at some of the paintings in their collection.

We are so lucky to have so many wonderful paintings on display and I get so much more enjoyment seeing the paintings of the artists we have studied in the Waverley Art Quilters.

There were quite a few Fred Williams paintings. Here is Upwey Landscape

Upwey Landscape by Fred Williams

There were a couple of paintings by Jeffrey Smart. Here is Cahill Expressway.

Cahill Expressway by Jeffrey Smart

I saw a couple of paintings that I haven't noticed before but they looked very quilt like to me.

Arrested Development from a Trio by Roy de Maistre

Painting no 14 by Ralph Balson

It was a full day of art and eating. Sounds like a perfect wedding anniversary day out to me. Luckily my husband is happy to go along with my plans!

Bye for now,

Linda