Robert Clinch's Fanfare For The Common Man and Maitland Regional Gallery's touring show In [Two] Art both opened on Saturday at the Wollongong Art Gallery, but presented two very different experiences for art lovers.

Melbourne-based and Cooma-born artist Clinch offers a set of intensely realistic, detailed paintings and lithographs of industrial scenes and cityscapes. A mid-career retrospective currently touring the country, more than 70 works reflect Clinch's 30-year career as an artist, but it is what he calls a "family" of three works featuring his three children that prove most arresting.

"They use a technique called egg tempera, where pigments are combined with water, ground to a paste, then mixed in with egg yolk," Mr Clinch said yesterday ahead of the official opening.

"It's a technique Botticelli was painting with in the Renaissance, but there are also egg tempera works coming out of Egyptian tombs."

While Clinch has the entire second floor of the gallery to himself, In [Two] Art has taken over the ground floor. An exhibit dedicated to artist couples, curator Joe Eisenberg said it explored the relationships - both artistic and personal - that creative people experience.

"It looks at Australian couples. People living together, married, heterosexual, bisexual, gay, lesbian. It's a very broad cross-section of what a 'couple' is," Mr Eisenberg said.

A mix of painting, sculpture and installations show together.

Fanfare for The Common Man finishes November 17, while In [Two] Art is open to December 1.