Time of the Signs exhibition reveals fragile layers mirroring our own vulnerability

Time of the Signs, an exhibition featuring Henri van Noordenburg’s stark and striking artworks is on display at Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery until October 13, 2024.

Meanjin/Brisbane-based artist Henri van Noordenburg’s practice is strongly informed by rich histories of the Dutch Golden Age with a focus on its heavy symbolism.

Time of the Signs was carved into being with ritualistic fervour while listening almost solely to the pop-minimalist arrangements of Max Richter’s Exiles album.

Matching tensions and undulations of Exiles’ musical structure with a freer style of expressive gestural strokes, van Noordenburg becomes a conduit for revelation with each surface scrape. Quick. Definite. Sure.

An atmospheric quality, strong in contrast of light and dark, gives great prominence to the sky and the ocean, as impressive cloud formations morph into vast emotive bodies of water.

Similar to the sgraffito process, this practice of reduction reveals fragile layers beneath each surface - a fitting metaphor for our own vulnerability.

Join us 5.30pm on Friday, August 23, 2024 for the openings of the POSTWORLD, Time of the Signs by Henri van Noordenburg & Carnival Queens exhibitions.

Everyone is welcome to attend the free event and bookings are required by calling 131 872 or emailing [email protected] Please RSVP by Wednesday, August 21.

For more information, please see: Exhibition | Time of the Signs – Henri van Noordenburg (tr.qld.gov.au)

Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery at 531 Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, is open Wednesday to Sunday 10.30am – 3.30pm. Additional Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers open times: Wednesday, September 11 to Sunday, September 29: Gallery open daily 10.30am – 3.30pm. Entry is free.

Images: Download via: https://spaces.hightail.com/space/3oGUBTAWRt

1. Henri VAN NOORDENBURG / Netherlands/Australia b. 1967 / Composition LXXX 2021 - 2023 / ink on Hahnemühle paper, hand carved / 100 x 220cm / © Henri van Noordenburg

2. Henri VAN NOORDENBURG / Netherlands/Australia b. 1967 / Composition C 2023 / ink on Hahnemühle paper, hand carved / 150 x 100cm / © Henri van Noordenburg

3. Henri VAN NOORDENBURG / Netherlands/Australia b. 1967 / Composition CXI - Max Richter Deck (The Devil, The Emperor, Ace of Swords) 2024 / ink on Hahnemühle paper, hand carved / 40 x 40cm each (three works) / © Henri van Noordenburg