Paul Cox exhibition at MARS Gallery

Renowned Australian film director and photographer Paul Cox is currently exhibiting at the Melbourne Art Rooms (otherwise known as MARS Gallery) on Bay Street, Port Melbourne near South Melbourne.

Andy Dinan opened MARS Gallery in 2004. Originally a dairy, the building has also housed a mechanical workshop and was used for a number of years as a warehouse. Dinan wanted to create:

“a unique space that offers a backdrop of simplicity and generous proportions to showcase outstanding Australian and International contemporary art from emerging and established artists”

This refurbished space keeps elements of the original architecture and integrates them with new design ideas.

Paul Cox is the Netherlands born film director who immigrated to Australia in 1965 and rose to fame with films like ‘My First Wife’ and more recently won the Grand Prix of the Americas for his feature ‘Innocence.’

Early in his career in the 1970s Cox taught photography at Prahran College and this exhibition at MARS Gallery sees him return to this world of still images once more.

Cox has been working with photographic techniques for many years and this is evident in this, his latest work. The photographs in this exhibition are comprised mainly of nudes shot in such a way that from a distance, they look like vibrant poster printing renditions of the body with their strong use of rich colour and striking use of light. The photographs have the sense of movement and drama you would expect from a master craftsman filmmaker like Cox. These are beautiful and sensual images and well worth a personal viewing.

Paul Cox’s photographic exhibition runs from Tuesday 8 November until Sunday 27 November 2011 at the MARS Gallery.