Mina Shafer & Sharon Shafer - 'Rainbows & Dots'

Wednesday 18 July - Sunday 12 August 2018 

Rainbows

Mina Shafer’s images are illustrations for a children’s book that is to be published later this year. The design and colour are inspired by the captivating art seen on a recent visit to Japan. She was influenced in particular by the art of the Edo era; modern fabric designs; contemporary Japanese art and the work of Tomakazu Matsuyama in particular.

The materials and techniques of the illustrations are mixed media including the use of translucent watercolour, opaque gouache, inks and watercolour pencils. The influences, techniques and materials were put together to create and convey, pictorially, a vibrant and playful story about a young girl’s journey towards self awareness .

Mina Shafer has had several exhibitions of paintings and sculptures in the 1990s in Gore Street Gallery, Terra Australas and 101 Collins Street. More recently, she exhibited her children’s book illustrations at a solo exhibition at Tacit Galleries (2017). Since 2010, Shafer has illustrated four published children’s books.

Dots

The images of Sharon Shafer are influenced by how women are portrayed in magazines and in western society where they are often stripped of their personal identity and used as mere mannequins for the selling of commodities and garments.

Her style is influenced by the striking silhouettes of Katsushika Hokusai, especially Great Wave Off Kanagawa and the dots of Yoyoi Kusama, whom she studied in Japan. She is also inspired by the Pop Art of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

Sharon Shafer’s technique is contemporary digital vector art, drawing black on white silhouettes from the shadows of the characters in the photographs with coloured dots added. The combination of silhouettes and dots represent the screening of women’s identity in society particularly in the media.