Exhibition Category: Past

Lone Splendour by Monique Morter is a new series of work based on the spectacular mountain ranges of the South Island of New Zealand. Predominantly working with pastel on paper Morter’s approach to drawing is hyper-real, her dream like colour pop images are laden with colour, electric at times while soft and sparse at other moments. Morter creates a sensuous mood in her depictions of the vistas she is observing, a luxury of colour to calm as well as titillate the eye, and through her work she imbues new life into these timeless terrains, so strong and solid in structure yet so soft, fragile and vulnerable in this age of melting ice caps and mountain snow. More than just pictures of positivity – which they are – this latest series is also a record of beauty mixed with a fragility expressed through the sublime medium of pastel on paper.

With an exceptional understanding of colour, line and shape that has been developed and refined over his near 50 years as an artist, the symbols and patterns that David Milne places into his meticulous work combine to reflect his artistic background as a Modernist with an acute awareness and sensibility to the trends and aesthetics of Contemporary painting.

Milne’s approach is bold and striking at first glance, invariably complex and intricate upon further inspection, calming and measured when time is spent with his careful and considered hard edge abstractions, yet in essence Milne’s numinous compositions go beyond the painted surface. Part riddle and part ‘The Spiritualisation of Matter’ his coded visual language offers us access to longer arcs of time and more metaphysical notions of our sense of place via visual cues that have been used in Western and Eastern Art over centuries.

Drawing on his knowledge of alchemy, and particular interest in engravings of the Seventeenth Century, Milne’s multi-layered yet clear compositions are infused with historical iconography as well as elementary symbols. Designed around meditative inflection Milne allows us to see and engage with an artist who’s work is created for our aesthetic enjoyment without a need for excessive elaboration even though a more complicated subtext is present for those wanting to discover the rationale and musings that underpin his highly sophisticated ethereal tomes.

Milne has had significant commercial success over four decades of exhibiting with sell out exhibitions in the 1980s and 2000s either side of his successful career working in advertising for Saatchi & Saatchi as their National Creative Director in the 1990s. Creating some of his best and most important work to date, and through formal presentation and representation, Milne continues to accrue credence and recognition for his unique compositions, mark making and his approach to his artistic practice that he has been dedicated to throughout his life.

Emma Stuart is a multi-disciplinary artist that has lived and worked in Australia and Internationally throughout her her artistic career. Following an extended period of time in Europe between 2011-2014 Stuart returned to Australia with an insatiable desire to see and experience living in remote ‘Outback’ Australia and so instead of simply returning to the metropolis of Melbourne she moved to and has been residing in Mparntwe, Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory. In this time Stuart’s artistic focus has been gripped by Arrernte country’s unique natural environment and evocative landscapes. Drawn to the liminal shift that takes place as a day transitions to night and night to day, Stuart’s latest series of works in Inside the Tjoritja capture the delicate shift between light and shade, between what is revealed and what is hidden, between the point of immediate attention as well as distorted peripheries. Instead of focusing on broad vistas typically depicted by central Australian landscape painters, Stuart presents us with paintings that have us at eye level within the bush, up close and in view of the ‘personalities’ of individual trees and their journeys though the different seasons and conditions of Australia’s desert interior climate. In recent years Stuart has created a number of series of works based on various areas around Mparntwe including Alice Springs telegraph station walk, Emily Gap, Honey moon Gap, and in this, her most recent body of work, the West MacDonnell National park, ‘Tjoritja’.

From the Long Road

‘The Long Road – literally a driving journey we took from our home in the south, to Arnhem Land at the top of Australia, with many diversions.

This collection of small paintings – all made along the way – depicts some of the great variety of this country. The colour palette was constantly shifting, as the weather morphed from nights of ice crusts, to fat drops of warm rain swept away as fast as they arrived, by a hot sun.

The privilege to see all this, and not just to see but to sit within it and paint, is not to be underestimated. We all know the way our human handprints are quickly grubbying so much of the country. So what could be seen as just a collection of pretty landscapes could also be viewed as an archive.

Or, more hopefully, offerings from the land to share around, and ensure we remember her.’

Alison Binks
2018

Sydney Contemporary 2018

Jacob Hoerner Galleries
Booth A04

Artists include

Andrew Gritscher
David Milne
Andrew Sibley
Gillian Warden

Viewing Times

Wednesday September 12
VIP Preview 4-8pm

Thursday September 13
12-5pm Public Day
5-9pm Opening Night

Friday September 14
12-8pm Public Day

Saturday September 15
11-6pm Public Day

Sunday September 16
11-6pm Public Day

Location

CARRIAGEWORKS
245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh
Sydney, Australia

For further information on Sydney Contemporary visit www.sydneycontemporary.com.au/