Small Works of Medium Density, a SALA group show at UniSA’s Liverpool Street Gallery, features the work of more than 75 artists. The fascinating collaborative exhibition is driven largely by the university’s Bachelor of Contemporary Art program director, Stephen Atkinson, and emerging artist Alice Parle. A diverse range of artistic approaches have surfaced as artists respond to the constraint of using the same common material – an A5 sheet of MDF (medium-density fibreboard).

The constraints of the concept prompted the artists to rethink how such a material could be transformed in different and novel ways. Whether they paint, print, sculpt or rearrange the board, the techniques are as vast as the number of artists involved, highlighting the originality of the participants.

I was especially drawn to the intriguing material use of contemporary artist Pantelis Georgiadis, whose work Head is created from MDF, yarn and zinc-plated nails. Installed at eye height, Head symbolises Georgiadis’s art-making process. It is inspired by creative block – what that feels like, and how he reacts to it.

Head, Pantelis Georgiadis, yarn and zinc-plated nails, 28 x 22 x 7cm. Photo: Brooke Ferguson

Established landscape painter and longtime Friend of the South Australian School of Art Geoff Wilson has produced a small acrylic painting centering on a shed on a field in regional SA. Wilson uses warm tones to capture the beauty and stillness of a scene familiar to many South Australians.

To Heavenly Tracings, Kristin Alford, ink on paper artist book, A5.

Futurist Kristin Alford’s work is an A5 artist book titled To Heavenly Tracings. Delicate paper pages alternate between blue-inked monotypes and words of poetry as she tries to convey the vastness and nothingness of oceans, space, and time. The book is an outcome of Alford’s collaboration with fellow exhibiting artist Jilda Andrews, representing their conversations on time and place.

Another artist who has really pushed the boundaries of the material is Stephen Atkinson. He completely dismantled and rebuilt his piece of MDF for CHAIN, converting it to the stage where it’s really quite hard to tell what the work is made from at all. It speaks to Atkinson’s broader methods rooted in experimentation, rule-bending, and quest for novelty.

Long-time ceramicist and lecturer Jo Crawford’s piece, It’s a wrap, completely encapsulates the sheet of fibreboard within a ceramic casing that takes the playful form of bubble wrap, further challenging our understanding of MDF.

Other works that stand out include Bronte Jeffs’ From Below, a portrait piece formed from bold-coloured paints applied directly onto the board, and Toby Thomas’s Veneer Squares, made from meticulously fusing 80 cubes of varying woods together.

From Below, Bronte Jeffs, acrylic on MDF, A5. Photo: Brooke Ferguson

Small Works of Medium Density doubles as a fundraiser for UniSA’s Contemporary Art graduate exhibition later this year, with all proceeds from sold works going directly to the show. A similar open-call fundraiser is also set to open at The Mill in October.

Group shows like this give emerging artists the opportunity to work alongside established ones. The accessibility of the prompt means that no matter one’s experience level, they can submit an artwork eligible for exhibition and sale. These kinds of opportunities help foster the next generation of artists, and grow Adelaide’s art ecosystem as a bold, responsive, articulate and expressive one.

UniSA Contemporary Arts Club is presenting Small Works of Medium Density at Liverpool Street Gallery until August 31 as part of SALA.

Read more SALA coverage here on InReview.

Chain (prototype A524), Stephen Atkinson, MDF and sumi ink.

Brooke Ferguson, an emerging visual artist and arts worker, is the 6th recipient of the Helpmann Academy InReview Mentorship. She is working with experienced visual arts writer Jane Llewellyn to write a series of articles for publication in InReview.