Introduction -
Eli van Engelen - Lines of Communication & Nudes

Eli van Engelen
Lines of Communication
& Brett Whiteley
Nudes

The svelte, seductive, opulent works by Eli van Engelen are invariably alluring, at times frivolous & on the occasion filled with a steely intensity that make them feel both intimate and elusive all at once leading her viewers to pause and peer into the suspended cinematic moments she creates.

Van Engelen’s work reflects an ongoing engagement with image collection and digital archiving, examining how the accumulation of online content offers fleeting, voyeuristic glimpses into the lives of others most often unknown or at best known yet ambiguous. These fragments, once untethered from their original context, are reimagined through a visual language that is both delicate and deliberate.

In her latest Series Lines of Communication the figure is once again rendered through the careful application of powdered graphite onto unprimed canvas. This process allows line and tone to emerge with a soft-focus sensitivity, producing surfaces that feel tactile yet ephemeral imbuing her refined compositions with a dreamlike, almost surreal atmosphere.

So in this context, this New Artist from the 21st Century, who has been inspired by & has an insatiable curiosity in the further & further away epoch of the 20th Century, will be presented in dialogue with 4 lithographs of the female nude from the 1970s & early 1980s by the iconic Brett Whiteley. This pairing bridges generations, presenting van Engelen’s graphite works alongside a master of Australian Art renowned for his use of line to depict the human form that is certain to result a dynamic exchange, a reframing that offers a renewed vitality to Whiteley’s work seen in this way while simultaneously emboldening van Engelen’s evolving practice and opening new paths of discovery within her work.

Lines of Communication by Eli van Engelen & Brett Whiteley’s Nudes will run from April 16 – May 23 with a Week 2 Opening Night taking place from 6-8pm Thursday April 23 2026.