Cowaramup’s Fugazi Gallery showcases new exhibition One Of Us in July and August

A new exhibition of some of the region’s wildest artists kicks off in Cowaramup this weekend.

The showcase One Of Us at Fugazi Gallery in the light industrial area also includes a couple of international guests, in keeping with gallery director Callum Fairnie’s links to the US.

One of those dignitaries is a star in other ways too, with Tunde Adebimpe an underground rock legend as the frontman and founder of New York indie rock legends TV On The Radio.

Fairnie told the Times the cult rock star was exhibiting one of his pieces from a series created several years ago to raise money for a women’s shelter.

“He is an eclectic artist that besides being lead singer for TV on the Radio, also acts and directs TV and movies,” Fairnie said.

The exhibition also featured American artist Gus Fink as part of the gallery’s reciprocal arrangement with a gallery in Brooklyn where Fairnie, a mosaic artist, previously held a residency.

Fink’s work has featured internationally, with Fairnie showcasing examples of the American’s “outsider art appealing to horror fans, goth kids and collectors of strange things”.

Also featured are local artists Laika Bowman, Rebecca Cool, Sam Crowley, Casey Fagan, Nigel Lullfitz, Vanessa Miller, Leanne Prestipino, Pierre Requillart and Milena Leander, Carol Seeley, Jen Stuart and Angus Watkins with a variety of artworks including paintings, recycled metal and wood sculptures, and photography.

Fairnie said One Of Us sought to “celebrate the power of community amongst society’s outsiders – including highlighting those intimacies that are often obscured”.

The new Wrigglesworth Drive studio’s second exhibition was partly-inspired by Tod Browning’s 1932 movie Freaks.

“The movie portrayed such a sense of compassion and community amongst those we often portray as outsiders,” he told the Times.

“The artists who showcase their work in Fugazi Gallery would not consider their work mainstream and some may indeed be ‘outsiders’.”

The term “one of us” featured in the black-and-white film when one of the “outsiders” was finally welcomed into the community.

“The point of One Of Us may be that a community of outsiders can look after their own and are a great support network for those individuals who don’t feel like they fit into mainstream society,” Fairnie said.

The exhibition runs for a month on Fridays and weekends from July 29 through to August 26 and opens tonight with a sold-out event featuring DJs Matrika and Leon Ewing.