Portrait of Professor John Collins by Vladimir Sobolev

November 12th to 18th. at the VAS Galleries

Faces of Melbourne, the forthcoming boutique exhibition at the Victorian Artists’ Society explores a selection of the personalities and places which define the Victorian Capital city.

The faces and facades that will appear on the walls of the charming ground-floor Cato Gallery, it is hoped will provoke both philosophy and philanthropy as the aim is to raise funds for the Foundation for Surgery at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. This will be the first of a series of annual exhibitions in aid of the Foundation.

Hazel Westbury, Director of DMT Arts International, the sponsoring body will open the show on Thursday 12th November – good timing to buy that perfect gift for Christmas or to do as Professor John Collins the founding Dean of Education at the College has done, that is to commission a portrait.

Professor Collins’ recently completed portrait was shown at the College just prior to his leaving for Oxford, his Alma Mater. Vladimir Sobolev the Russian Master who painted the portrait will be one of the exhibitors in the November show. Born in Moscow, Vladimir was awarded his first international art prize at the age of 12 years and over the past 40 years has travelled extensively, exhibiting and carrying out commissions in many corners of the world. A former Professor of Fine Art at the Moscow College of Fine Art and currently visiting Professor he remains a truly Russian painter, with realist painting as his basis.

The portrait takes a special role in Vladimir Sobolev’s creative work. Being one of the most difficult genres of painting, it attracts the artist not only because it provides the possibility to demonstrate an impeccable technique and the ability to convey precisely a portrait likeness, but also to reveal the inner world of the sitter. Vladimir’s official portraits hang in Treasury Place, The Royal Society Victoria, The Sporting Hall of Fame and St Mary’s Star of the Sea.

Another view of Melbourne is taken by Tasmanian photographer Ilona Schneider. Trained in Europe, with global experience in portraiture, Ilona has picked the urban landscape with which she has a great affinity, as her topic and interpretation of Faces of Melbourne.

Lastly Hazel Westbury will exhibit her own contribution to the city landscape. A former resident of Collins Street, she fell in love with the 170 year old boulevard, described as having “status as the grandest street of one of the great cities of the Victorian Age….an urban landscape upon which many masters have worked and work today. Its fine nineteenth century heritage is still strongly evident, adding depth and richness to that of the twentieth and twenty first centuries.”

Judith R Buckrich – “Collins – The Story of Australia’s Premier Street”
Members and friends of VAS are all invited to attend the Opening on Thursday November 12th at 6.00 pm in the Cato Gallery at Victorian Artists’ Society Albert Street – just across the road from the College.