Romancing The Streetscape

This is the title of a notable exhibition currently being held at the Town Hall Gallery in Hawthorn, Melbourne.  Seven local artists; Robert Clinch, Cathy Drummond, Dani Mackenzie, Andrew Browne, Rick Amor, William Breen and Mark Chu present their unique interpretations of the urban environment.

Clinch, Lot's Wife, Gouche, watercolour and dry brush on paper, 107 x 198 cm

The viewer is taken on a stroll through the streets of (mainly inner) Melbourne where a melting pot of cultures rub shoulders with one another.  The catalogue refers to a romanticism in these works that is usually associated with landscape painting.  The exhibition presents a vibrancy of colour and light in the works of some artists contrasting with the soft muted colours of Rick Amor’s work.

Clinch, Fanfare For The Common Man, 2003, egg tempera on panel, 107 cm x 105 cm

There is an absence of people from most of these paintings - as if the emphasis is on the environment that most of us spend our lives in.  At the exhibition opening,  the absence of people is noted and reference made to the recent pandemic, although most of the paintings in the show predate 2020.  But there is certainly an air of alienation in some of the works, even a nostalgia for bygone era.

Drummond, Opp Shop, 2014, oil on canvas, 102 cmx 137 cm

This nostalgia is particularly evident in the paintings of Cathy Drummond.  Her work includes garish shop fronts that have long disappeared in the rapid development and gentrification of inner Melbourne.  Her paintings are full of character where she displays no fear of colour and a great understanding of composition.  But as a poignant reminder of the reality of the human condition for many, her paintings include an image of a railway viaduct and evidence of human habitation underneath.

Clinch, Spartacus, 2013, egg tempera on panel, 107 cm x 105 cm

I have never seen an artist master the challenging medium of egg tempera the way Robert Clinch can.  The clarity of light and fine detail in his work is astonishing.  Whilst his works give the impression that they are based on photography, this is not the case.  His compositions are a collage of multiple locations to create a seemingly realistic scene which is entirely imaginary.  When speaking of his career, Clinch explains that his catholic upbringing influences the titling of his works.

Breen, Made With Love, 2012, oil on canvas, 107 cm x 214 cm

William Breen’s work is inspired by the architectural history and eclectic contemporary graffiti of the inner suburbs. In speaking of his work, Breen says “The images echo a state of suspended animation when everything slows down to a point where one can appreciate the contemplative nature of a world in balance, a world where everything is in its right place; an ideal vision.”

Mackenzie, That Little Italian Place On The Corner, 2022,  oil on canvas,107 cm x 152 cm

Dani Mackenzie is becoming a significant artist on the contemporary scene.  There is a soft focus to her quasi-photographic imagery, combining a dreamy atmospheric light with a sense of mystery, even a foreboding in some of her night time scenes.  She is credited with infusing a mystery into the banality of everyday scenes.  She spends many hours walking the streets where she lives and works, looking for images that reflect the shared experience of living in a city. 

The exhibition continues until 15th April.

Hello, my name is Geoff. You may be interested to know that I’m a fulltime artist these days and regularly exhibit my work in Victoria, but particularly in Melbourne. You may wish to check out my work using the following link; https://geoffharrisonarts.com

References;

Romancing The Streetscape, Boroondara Arts

Art Of The Suburbs - George Shaw

He has been described as the Constable of the council estate.  British artist George Shaw was born in 1966 and raised in Tile Hill, a suburb of Coventry.  A painter of the ordinary and the mundane, Shaw seems to imbue these scenes with a romantic longing, whilst enhancing their bleakness.  He  studied art at Sheffield Polytechnic followed by the Royal College of Art in the 1990s, but the post-war council estates where he grew up continued to inspire him.

Playtime

Memories of childhood and adolescence provided the inspiration for his work - a sentimental and nostalgic reverie (as he puts it), but he believes that now his work is a confrontation with reality rather than “relaxing back into a comfortable situation”.  In an interview, Shaw expressed frustration over the need to develop a special language in order to understand contemporary art, whereas for him it’s all about engaging directly with another human being.  He wanted to produce an image which a professor of fine art could discuss with his mother and neither of them being condescending towards the other.  A universal language perhaps?

From Shaw's 12 Short Walks series, etching 2005

The religious overtones in the titling of his work derives from Shaw being raised as a Catholic, thus his titles often refer to the Bible or the life of Christ.  Commentating on his home town, Shaw once said “I don't think it has ever left me, that sense of possibility and familiarity and possible danger lurking out there somewhere beyond. I haunted the place and now it haunts me.”

The Path On The Edge, 1997-98

Shaw has some interesting insights into the responses to his work, “It has been said my work is sentimental. I don’t know why sentimentality has to be a negative quality. What I look for in art are the qualities I admire or don’t admire in human beings.”  He seems to be able to intertwine different emotions into his work.  There is a sense of foreboding, isolation, nostalgia in his work where the viewer has been taken on a journey to something hidden, or perhaps to an escape from some unexplained drama.  “I fear death considerably and I fear the ending of things, so I am anxious about things coming to an end... I am very clear in a lot of the images to always paint ways out.”

From Scenes From the Passion series; Christmas Eve

In an interview with the art historian Andrew Graham Dixon, Shaw explained some of his motivations. “When I first went to an art gallery at age 14 (the Tate), I didn’t see my world in that gallery….where is my life, perhaps my life isn’t worth anything?  You stepped out of your world into a gallery.”  So he decided to open the window at home and draw what’s there.  “And if you don’t find it beautiful, that’s your fault.”  Perhaps ironically, his work is now on the walls of the Tate.  Graham-Dixon argues that Shaw’s work isn’t just an accurate depiction of an urban environment, they are descriptions of a mood - modern man alienated in a largely man-made landscape.

End Of Time 2008-09

He works from photographs taken with a humble camera, he works quickly, not needing to roam around looking for inspiration.  He already has the inspiration, he just needs to find images that support it.  He has painted in water colour but primarily uses enamel.  

Shaw’s work is a melancholic exploration of the passage of time, of a sense of loss.  He often recalls a pub in Tile Hill, once the social hub of the area, but then demolished with no record of its existence save for his drawings.  The Guardian sums up his work succinctly, “the passage of time, the roots of who we are and the melancholy of approaching middle age.”

Every Brushstroke is Torn Out of My Body, 2016, Enamel on canvas, 198 cm wide

Hello, my name is Geoff. You may be interested to know that I’m a fulltime artist these days and regularly exhibit my work in Victoria, but particularly in Melbourne. You may wish to check out my work using the following link; https://geoffharrisonarts.com

References;

Artuk.org

Artfund.org

The Secret of Drawing - BBC TV

Nan Goldin - Art And Addiction

It’s interesting the way some successful artists reflect upon their lives.  Internationally renowned artist Nan Goldin had long berated herself for years of addiction, especially to opiates. “Every morning I’d wake up in hell, waking up to self-condemnation.  And then I’m taking two hours to get up because it’s so awful.”  These comments were made during her session with celebrated physician and addiction therapist Dr Gabor Mate.

Buzz and Nan at the Afterhours, New York City, 1980

Reading of her sessions with Mate, you’d swear she’d never been a ‘creative dynamo’ who has produced a vast body of powerful and distinctive art, exhibiting internationally to great acclaim.  “I’ve missed years of my life, I don’t have many more years to go.  I’ve spent most of my life addicted to drugs and as a result, know nothing.  My knowledge is very limited, I didn’t look in the mirror and deal with myself.  So much has been lost.”  She went on to say that she feels worthless and defective.

Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City, 1980

She was born Nancy Goldin into a middle class Jewish family in Boston in 1953.  She is the youngest of four children and was particularly close to her sister, Barbara, who from an early age rebelled against middle class American life.  This, in a climate of silence and denial.  Barbara spent time in institutions before committing suicide at the age of 18, when Nan was 11.  Speaking of Barbara, Goldin argues that in the early sixties, women who were sexual and angry were considered dangerous and outside the range of acceptable behavior.  She described her sister as being born at the wrong time with no tribe, no other people like her.  It’s argued that the gritty realism of Goldin’s work, the desire to tell it as it is has its roots in these early childhood experiences.

Trixie on the Cot, New York City, 1979

Goldin decided at an early age she would record her life and experiences “that no one could rewrite or deny”.  One of her closest friends was the photographer David Wojnarowicz (see my blog dated 8 May, 2020), and like him, she used photography as an act of resistance.  She moved to New York in 1979 and began producing photographs of those in her immediate environment.  Her most celebrated body of work is “Ballad of Sexual Dependency”, a project which began in the early 1980’s.  

In her critique of an exhibition based around ‘Ballad’, held at MOMA in 2016, Tasya Kudryk argues that Goldin had an intense relationship with her subjects whom she described as her family.  “The artist’s work captures an essential element of humanity that is transcendent of all struggles: the need to connect.”  Goldin claims it’s impossible to capture the essence of a person in a single image, instead she aims to “capture the swirl of identities over time.”  Her images include relationships in transition, of couples drifting together and then apart.  She doesn’t shy away from depicting violence, such as her self portrait showing the aftermath of a battering she received from a boyfriend that almost blinded her.  The message seemed to be that while sex can be a cure for isolation, it can be a source of alienation.

Nan, One Month After Being Battered, 1984

Ballad of Sexual Dependency has been described as a deeply personal visual diary narrating the struggle for intimacy and understanding between her friends, family and lovers.  The setting is mainly the hard-drugs subculture of New York’s lower east side.  (Interestingly, some former inhabitants  lament the gentrification of the area that has taken place recently.)  Goldin wants her work not to be seen in the context of observer, but as participant.  “Ballad” is now regarded as a contemporary classic, raising awareness around issues such as homosexuality and AIDS.  “Goldin's open, frank style of narration and dense colour make the viewer go beyond the surface of the photograph to encounter a subterranean intensity “- Kudryk.  Yet permeating these images is a sense of loss.  "I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I’ve lost." - Goldin.

Nan and Dickie in the York Motel, New Jersey, 1980

Goldin acknowledges that her escape into substance use rescued her when she resorted to it at age 18, when going through a painful time in her life.  “Literally, addiction saved my life”, she told Mate.  Otherwise, she may have been driven to suicidal despair.  She wishes that the consequences weren’t so harsh - as other addicts do.  Mate argues that self-accusation is a relentless whip that spurs so many perfectionists to buckle down, do more, be better.  It needs to be seen for what it is - a callow voice that needs to be firmly, but quietly put in its place.

Nan and Brian in Bed, New York City, 1983

More recently, (in addition to dealing with her own addiction) Goldin has engaged in personal and collective activism against Purdue Pharma, manufacturers of the opioid OxyContin which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.  Purdue marketed the product as being a less addictive opioid than other painkillers, whilst suppressing evidence to the contrary.  

Her particular targets in this campaign has been the Sackler family, who control Purdue, and her fame as an artist gave her a platform to raise the banner.  The Sacklers have promoted themselves as benevolent art philanthropists among other things, but Goldin was appalled at their callousness and inhumanity.  As a result of her campaigning, some of the world’s most prestigious galleries, including the Met in New York, no longer accept money from the Sacklers and have removed their logo from their buildings.

Tough Sharon

 When Mate asked her about her activism, Goldin responded “you need something bigger than yourself.”  In her case, it was the suffering of others, a situation she could rectify and which helps her to stay sober.  Mate believes that in standing up to a toxic culture, Goldin found herself. 

Hello, my name is Geoff. You may be interested to know that I’m a fulltime artist these days and regularly exhibit my work in Victoria, but particularly in Melbourne. You may wish to check out my work using the following link; https://geoffharrisonarts.com 

References; 

www.sleek-mag.com 

“The Myth of Normal”, Gabor Mate, 2022 

“The Lonely City”, Olivia Laing, 2016