Robin Stewart

ROBIN STEWART 13 April – 2 May 2021

AU S T R A L I A N GA L L E R I E S MELBOURNE

Artist in his studio

AU S T R A L I A N GA L L E R I E S MELBOURNE

Invites you to the opening

ROBIN STEWART Tuesday 13 April 2021 6pm – 8pm 35 Derby Street Collingwood VIC 3066 Current until Sunday 2 May 2021 Open 7 days 10am to 6pm T 03 9417 4303 melbourne@australiangalleries.com.au australiangalleries.com.au

Front cover: The brief (detail) 2020 oil and collage on linen 97 x 97 cm

Artist’s studio

The circumstances of Robin Stewart’s paintings depict a modern human predicament: the pressure of commercial life. Affairs are packed into a day, which gives no time to think, contemplate, or play. So, a restaurant becomes a place to catch up on correspondence, a café is now an institution where business is carried out. The subjects of his paintings toil quietly, fulfilling a task which must be completed, surrounded by the built environment, the desk, the stairs, the corners, the lifts and the fluoro lights.

They wait for a meeting. They pay a bill. Home is far away. A building must be locked.

A cleaner begins his work.

Drawing has been a central part of Robin Stewart’s art from the beginning.

He will often begin his works in pencil and graduate into oil.

Attending art school and raised in the commercial studio system, he has been working under and with studio craftsmen all his creative life. His influences have been the Russian painters of the early twentieth century and international artists of that time.

Stewart’s development has been through the study of the works of the European Moderns, and Rodchenco, Malevich, Tatlin, Kandinski, Bacon and Hopper.

Acetylene afternoons 2019 oil on linen 97 x 97 cm

The perfectionist 2017 oil on linen 97 x 97 cm

Waiting for the call 2019 oil on linen 97 x 97 cm

Basement 2019 oil on linen 97 x 97 cm

Circus on a quiet night 2013 oil on linen 97 x 158 cm

Night worker 2019 oil on linen 97 x 97 cm

Days of hopes and dreams 2016 oil on linen 97 x 158 cm

Private moment, private suite 2018 oil on linen 97 x 97 cm

The candidates 2020 oil and collage on linen 97 x 97 cm

The tradies 2018 oil and collage on linen 102 x 231 cm

ROBIN STEWART

Stuart Purves and the artist in his studio

AU S T R A L I A N GA L L E R I E S MELBOURNE: Derby Street 03 9417 4303 Stock Rooms 03 9417 2422 SYDNEY: Roylston Street 02 9360 5177 enquiries@australiangalleries.com.au australiangalleries.com.au Design and Production by Publishing