Nostalgia for Nothing
Exhibition dates: Tue 22 March to Sat 16 April 2011
View the artworks
Print Artist CV
Nostalgia for Nothing
I start with long walks where I make photographs, drawings and I fill my trolley with found objects. I turn the photographs and drawings upside down or on their side or I leave them as they are depending on how I find the image most interesting. I focus on the negative shapes and points of tension. I then begin to work on at least 15 paintings and a few found object ensembles ranging from small to quite large, splashing thin paint around and placing different objects next to one another I start to process my research and begin to make sense new ideas. Each painting receives many hits and with each hit the surface quality improves and my intentions become clearer. There is a lot of painting out and as the painting comes of age my moves and marks become more deliberate…full of intent like old men playing chess in a park. These final decisions made are arduous and quite often painful.
I have often described my paintings as incoherent mind maps. I am deeply connected and involved with the stunning details of life. I am an optimist, a naturalist, I am not an academic, my approach is raw, primal, however deliberate and emotional. For me its about those long and important hours painting, that is where I form a relationship with the work, that is where I form the dialogue. Like keys on a map I have this visual alphabet and visual words. The better works are lyrical however, more like a poem than a song. They all finish more or less at the same time like a dream or a film.
Born
Newcastle, NSW
Education
2001 National Art School, Sydney Australia
Solo exhibitions
2010Damien Minton Gallery, Redfern- Nostalgia for nothing2010Brooding Town – Iain Dawson Gallery, Sydney2010Postage Paid Berlin, Cooks Hill Galleries, Newcastle 2009Poor Boy – Fortyfive Downstairs, Melbourne 2008I knew I knew You -Cooks Hill Galleries, Newcastle 2006Wash me clean – Cooks Hill Galleries, Newcastle 2005New Work – Volume Gallery, Newcastle 2004Vintage – Damien Minton Gallery, Newcastle 2004New Paintings – Maunsell Wicks, Sydney 2003Mark Making – NAS, Newcastle
Group exhibitions
2010A perfect day to chase tornados (White) – Australian Artists show in Berlin201048hours Neukolin – Berlin2009Group Show – Libby Edwards Gallery, Melnourne2007Drinkwater & KInnane – Cooks Hill Galleries, Newcastle2004These are a few of my favourite things – Damien MintonGallery, Newcastle2003A collection of paintings – Alder Gallery,Surry Hills, Sydney2002Trinity Grammar Watercolour Show – Summer Hill, Sydney
Publications
2010The Spectator Magazine– ‘Ich bin ein Berliner – Creative Australians are finding in the German capital the creative freedom they lacked at home’2010Real Living Magazine– ‘Best of the best art works’2010ABC National Radio – ‘Expatriate of the week’2010Newcastle Herald – 27thMarch 2010Newcastle Herald – ‘At home in Berlin’ 2009Suffering for his art – Star Newspaper Melbourne 2010Art review – Newcastle Weekender Magazine 2010Newcastle Herald – At Home in Berlin2009Drinking it up – Newcastle Weekender Magazine 2007Newcastle Herald
Awards
Gould League Environmental Prize 1998
Newcastle Mattara Festival Painting Prize
Reg Russom Life Drawing Prize Finalist 1995 & 1996
John Olsen National Art School Life Drawing Prize 2002
Collections
Macquarie Group Collection
Catholic Education Office, NSW, Australia
St Francis Xavier College, Newcastle
Private collections in New York, Singapore, Germany, Australia