Harry Thring Solo Exhibition “Heliopause” at Tinning Street

Thursday 13th February at Tinning Street Gallery - located in the unofficial ‘creative heart’ of Melbourne, Brunswick, was the opening of Adelaide based artist, Harry Thring. A cool change had hit Melbourne, and I made my way through the unassuming backstreet of Tinning Street to the hidden gallery space in another laneway off Tinning. Tinning Street Gallery is a lovely, open, bright space that is composed of an L shape - main gallery and side area / bar / admin / bathroom. Two large windows allows for beautiful natural light into the space, as well as having flexible lighting system, Tinning Street is a really great hidden gem. With no hanging system, as is the standard with similar spaces, it is versatile for what you can do within the space. Harry Thring’s solo exhibition, “Heliopause” consisted of painting and mixed media works. Three larger canvases dominated the space and demanded your attention; with their large, block, flat areas of neutral colours (mustards, greys and greens) Thring then brought your focus from these planes of colour to Basquiat-inspired detail illustrations, writings and sketches which added a tension and nice dynamic to the works. It was a continuous conversation of balance and asymmetry which I personally really loved. What I liked a lot about the works, was that I could see all of my favourite painters inspiration within Thring’s pieces, Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Daniel O’toole (EARS). Harry Thring is a self-taught artist, which allows him to honestly and openly represent these inspirations and digest what they aesthetically mean to him on a personal level. Aesthetically, the pieces are striking, graphic and bold, using jarring splashes of pinks against mustard, bight yellow spray on reserved greys and the decoupage and paste ups of glossy flash magazines on muted greens. It is a really striking show. It was also nice to see a diverse range of presentations, from two beautifully framed works on paper to an experiment with the 3D and sculptural form, painting on an air force helmet, presented on a plinth, added a nice anchor point for Thring’s aesthetic to leap from the 2D walls and occupy quite confidently and easily a 3D form. The exhibition, “Heliopause” (at the edge of the solar system, where the sun’s influence is no longer felt, the heliopause marks a point of immense change) allows us to see, for this young, dedicated, emerging Adelaide artist, perhaps this is a moment of change? Exhibiting in Melbourne as an emerging or establishing artist can be daunting, and especially for interstate artists, but perhaps this Heliopause marks a moment, for this obviously talented and hard working artist. It was a really lovely opening, with lots of Thring’s family from Adelaide and friends, and the gallery had such a supportive, beautiful, and wonderful energy about it. I had a chat to Thring and was so wonderful to meet him - not only is he incredibly talented and hard-working, but a really down-to-earth and lovely guy as well. With my trip to Adelaide Fringe coming up to shoot and review a few visual art shows there, he offered to show me around Radelaide and a few exhibitions as I have never been before - which was just lovely. I can not stress how great it is to go to exhibition and gallery openings - not just for the artist, having support and patrons see your work, but for everyone. Have a drink, have a chat, see the work and get involved. You never know what the amazing outcome of any meeting, conversation or moment could be. This is what it’s all about.