Permanent - Opening Night 25/8
by Ella V Reid
With plans to exhibit a show like this for a long time, the owners of Compendium Gallery and Compendium Tattoo are delighted to share the opening of Permanent - Art by Tattoo artists.
Opening night took place on Friday the 25th of August at Compendium Gallery, starting at 6pm and going until 9pm. Unlike our typical gallery openings, this one went a little different, serving MoonDog beer and seltzers and had an extended time frame, with the owners, artists, curators and friends sitting back and reflecting on the show after the festivities subsided.
Kris Sunkee’s white on black tattoo for his client Chron which is based off Sunkee’s work Penance.
With one of the artists submissions being re created as a tattoo, it was amazing to see that very client purchase the painting that inspired his tattoo. It was also amazing to see so many of the artists who exhibited in the space come and see their art in a commercial gallery setting and experience the gallery and sales process.
The opening was a success with many of our sales being made that night, with a range of buyers including friends of the artists, clients, gallery staff and the artists themselves.
Overall it was great to see the art world and the tattoo world coming together to appreciate the talents of all those who have different creative outlets.
Curators Highlights
Elric Gordon
Obsidian Rose
2022
Charcoal on paper
47cm x 40cm
$2,000
Elric Gordon is a part owner of the Black Mark Tattoo studio in Melbourne, who specialises in black and grey realism tattoos. His work Obsidian Rose really stood out to me when it was delivered to space. Something so simple yet so beautiful was so lovely to see from an artist whose commissions on skin are quite large scale and complex. Then learning that the charcoal drawing was created using the reduction method just made me appreciate its simplistic beauty that much more.
Gordon intends to delve deeper into his art making practices with different methods and materials, and I am very interested to see what he will be working on next. I look forward to having him exhibit with us again.
Insamnia
Abyssus
2023
Oil on canvas
120cm x 84cm
$4,500
SOLD
One half of the owners of Compendium Gallery and Tattoo Studio, Sam Nugent (who goes by the pseudonym Insamnia) really showcases his artistic and tattoo style with this piece titled Abyssus. His tattoo style is described as Bio Organic and it is very prevalent in this piece.
Though the colour palette chosen gives the work this eerie sense of three dimensionality, It's the level of harmony in this piece is what stood out for me.
Abyssus may look like something out of one's nightmare, but the way in which Insamnia has made the figures and the details that embody them flow is beyond incredible. It is so amazing to see that Insamnia can just as easily display organisms that synthesise so well with each other on canvas as he does on the skin of his clients.
Ava McConkey
Somebody Someone
2023
Oil on canvas
36cm x 28cm
$480
SOLD
Ava McConkey is a tattoo apprentice at Perfect Circle Tattooing in Shepparton who is at the beginning of both her artistic and tattooing career. Though saying she is at the beginning of her career, what a beginning it is! I was introduced to her work by one of the gallery owners Kris Sunkee and I was shocked that such a young woman so early in her career was able to create such a hauntingly beautiful piece. After being shown her work Somebody Someone I was so enamoured by it I just knew it had to be one of the show's hero images.
Somebody Someone encompasses the timeless tradition of the female portrait and reworks it almost to emulate something that might exist on a billboard out of an 80s anime cityscape, or an advertisement that would be in a shop window or tv screen in one of the Blade Runner films. She achieves this with the use of a simple yet impactful colour palette and a geometrically fractured yet realistic aesthetic.
These are just some of the few reasons I purchased this piece.
I have also learned that it will be part of a serious so I am very excited to see what comes next for McConkey.
Kris Sunkee
My Troubles with God
2023
Oil on canvas
200cm x 200cm
$11,500
One of the owners of the Compendium Gallery and Tattoo Studio, Sunkee painted this woman as a means to capture and display beauty for beauty's sake like Baroque icon Caravaggio, to whom Sunkee is a great admirer.
I have had my eye on this painting for months after Sunkee showed me an image of it unfinished in his studio. I would check up on it and ask how it was doing like its blood shared my bloods DNA (though this was very much not the case). So the day I finally got to see it in its infinite and 2x2 metre glory, to say I was a little starstruck was an understatement. The figure in My Troubles with God is so striking. She looks down as if to either pass judgement or stare into the soul of those who meet her gaze. This alongside the grand scale of the painting just makes it that much more mesmerising.
This painting is just a preview of whats to come from Sunkee with the Compendium Gallery hosting his solo show titled an Offering to God which opens on the 22nd of September.
Permanent will be running until the 16th of September.
To view the shows catalogue please click here.
For any enquiries or purchases please contact compendiumgallery@gmail.com
