Visual Arts / The Space Between by Roslyn Kean and Rock at the Roadside, the Mokuhanga Project, Generator Gallery at Belconnen Arts Centre. Until 11 October. Reviewed by DAVID WHITBREAD

What resonates in Roslyn Kean’s exhibition is the combination of technical mastery and geometric complexity in a curated selection of her works over an extended period of time. It creates a wonderfully peaceful aura with subtle environmental messaging.

The earliest work, Reflections from 1973, even then showed a remarkable control of gouache in both fine colour mixing and application in the intricate geometry of the image, which heralded the delights to come.

Of the most recent works, Inside San Marco Basilica from 2026, demonstrated the progression of that geometric sensibility with the incredibly complex three-dimensional pyramidal forms and the finely honed registration of her multilayered multiblock woodcut technique. The subtlety of colour and tonal variation, married with the shadow play over the different pyramids created great textural contrast with the straightforward solid colour square with visible woodgrain printed in the centre. And with a nod to the Basilica, of course there was gilding.

These themes echoed through the many phases of her career as a printer. The woodblock printing technique has great possibilities for subtlety in colours and effects.  The Japanese mokuhanga technique uses water-based inks and is particularly beautiful when they are mixed on the block to create subtle gradations of colours, enabling very fine shading effects that dimensionalise the surface. This was particularly noticeable in pieces like In Flight (2021) and Midare-Disorder (2024) which play with the viewer’s surface perception.

Then there is the spectacular array of glimmer and gleam achieved with gilding techniques, from traditional application of gold leaf, through to the use of fine metallic dusts in suspension and applied to the woodblock for printing direct onto the paper surface.

These effects were used in the impressive triptych Evening Sky, Evening Sky II, and Between Horizon and Shadow, from 2014. The preparation of the paper surface before printing created a further layer of information. A pearlescent effect allowed background details to emerge beneath the surface. And all in a deceptively simple Japanese style composition.

Kean’s Sacred Garden series from the early to mid 1990s explored rock-like shapes within a tight rectangular construction, and played with multilayered finishes including the golds and silvers, as well as rust effects and textural splatters. This was textural exploration and quite playful within a rigidly confined shape.

Photopolymer was another printing technique Kean has explored extensively, layering natural forms like leaves, twigs, stem clippings and bamboo shoots into her rectilinear compositions. Contrasting their freestyle forms with both strict oblongs and the subtle texture of woodgrain. And a wry environmental commentary in her titling.

The 2020 work Basho’s Garden had at least six layers of plant including a beautiful silver version and a ghost layer in reverse – and that was just in one small segment of the whole! The detail and work involved in these multiblock woodcuts is truly astonishing.

The Japanese influence is evident throughout, but no more so than the beautiful sumi stained kozo paper framing a central gilded woodcut titled Night Rain Softly Falling from 2013 that completes the exhibition.

Briefly noted is a related mini exhibition in the same space, called the Mokuhanga Project. Belconnen resident and poet, 94-year-old Saeki Ogi invited 13 printmakers to respond to her poetry collection Rock at the Roadside with a mokuhanga print. These 13 identically sized and framed prints have created a lovely set of images. The colouring throughout is beguiling. The images range from Roslyn Kean’s balancing rocks for Along the Way, to Keiko Kobayashi’s forest scene in I Awaken, to Gemelle Madigan’s multilayered Love on Every Path I Walked, to Susan Rushforth’s moody Rising Moon, to Kay Watanabe’s leaf forms in Ocean of Light, and Trish Yates’s subtle Azure. Delightful.

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