Confine

Posted: 10 Jul 2012

James Bonnici’s distorted figures have been receiving a lot of attention and this new work is built off the back of his recent successes at Art Melbourne. Combining with Bonnici’s finely rendered works are ADi Brierley’s socially aware and consciously political paintings of native animals tenderly juxtaposed with ipods, mobile phones and other types of neo-junk.

Toni-Ann Dowd’s dark and strangely oceanic masks are a confronting distortion of the portrait. They take the figurative and add a layer of concealment and detachment. As with Dan Sibley’s work, he is looking further inside the human condition rendering abstract paintings of internal organs, creating an ambiguous play between figuration and abstraction.

Nicholas Ives new paintings continue his fascination with gothic morbidity in the grotesque portraiture he is so well known for and this new work is equally Goya-esque and combines well with the group of artists chosen for this show.

Each artist represented in this exhibition is a resident of the Blender Studios. The tone and quality of the work exhibited is powerful and sobering, but meek and personal at the same time and a genuine example of painting in Melbourne now.

Artists: James Bonnici, Toni-Ann Dowd, Adi Brierley, Nicholas Ives, Dan Sibley

Opening: Friday 13th July 2012  6-9pm

Exhibition from 13 - 27 July 2012

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