GRAHAM LANG | A FULCRUM OF INFINITIES
GRAHAM LANG | A FULCRUM OF INFINITIES
A Fulcrum of Infinities GRAHAM LANG 31 August - 28 September 2016
A Fulcrum of Infinities owes much to raw impulse, not in defiance of any academic trends but simply because art tends to lead me rather than me it. More often than not a painting is started with an idea only to see the paint steer me to those far more interesting revelations where memory, intuition and technique randomly collide. I therefore hope this exhibition can be enjoyed in the relatively unharnessed way it was created. Never far from mind when I work is the Surrealist idea of ‘the marvellous’ whereby sudden and seemingly coincidental accidents or juxtapositions can activate powerful new associations. Or, as Louis Aragon put it, ‘The marvellous is the eruption of contradiction within the real.’ Strange appositions frequent this collection, most starkly in the first of two dominant themes where animal surrogates evoke human narratives or suggest the bewildering complexity of opposites that constitute self. The title of this exhibition alludes to a perplexing conundrum: that there exists in every living thing an internal physical infinity as endless as that existing externally. This idea grew some years ago after a near-fatal illness and seems to have been the underlying force behind a second theme that attempts (particularly in the Lazarus works and the landscapes) to evoke the precarious limbo between existence and extinction. It’s also a good way of saying that with art the possibilities are endless.
FRONT: Strange Lovebirds: Espãna & Pablo | 2016 | oil on card | 73 x 61 cm signed LR | $5,950
Strange Lovebirds: Frida & Diego (detail) | 2016 | oil on card | 91 x 62 cm | signed LL | $5,750
Strange Lovebirds: Silvia & Ted (detail) | 2016 | oil on card | 102 x 76 cm | signed LR | $6,500
Guru (detail)| 2016 | oil on card | 102 x 76 cm | signed LR | $6,500
The Epiphany of St Francis (details) | 2015 | oil on card | 102 x 76 cm signed LR | $6,500
FIGURES | ANIMALS I developed my translucent technique in oils while trying to emulate the intricate effects achieved in a series of monoprints completed at Rhodes University in the 1980s, where I painted directly onto etching plates. Hence, rather than the conventional technique of building up opaque layers of paint on a resistant ground, I preferred the highly expressive transparent effects of thin oils on a smooth surface where, as with watercolours, the white ground becomes integral to tone and colour/mark intensity. As a figure painter my primary concern is to achieve a sense of immediacy. The ability to apply paint quickly and expressively suits my temperament. It is not an easy technique; there is no formula and harnessing arbitrary splurges can be frustrating and occasionally impossible. But finding strange people and animals in paint carries a special joy and I’m constantly surprised by what emerges. The human and animal binary is a dominant feature of this exhibition. Birds, bulls, fish and dogs all have their special place in art’s iconography. My paintings therefore continue an old tradition, yet each also contains its own mysterious narrative and invites interpretations on the viewer’s terms.
Blessed be the Pure | 2016 | oil on card | 122 x 76 cm | signed LR | $7,500
Black Dog | 2016 | oil on card | 51 x 74 cm | signed LL | $4,500
Dog, Shake | 2015 | oil on card | 75 x 97 cm | signed LR | SOLD
Dog, Run | 2015 | oil on card | 76 x 102 cm | signed LR | $3,500
Ophelia’s Choice | 2015 | oil on card | 102 x 76 | signed LR | $6,500
Given to Distance (detail) | 2015 | oil on card | 102 x 76 cm | signed LR $6,500
GRAHAM LANG | BIO Graham Lang was born in Zimbabwe and migrated to Australia in 1990. An MFA graduate from Rhodes University, South Africa, he also holds a PhD from the University of Newcastle where he taught art for twenty years before moving to Tasmania in 2011. His career as a painter and sculptor spans four decades during which he has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas and taken up several artist residencies, including two at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop. His art is essentially biographical in its attempt to evoke both the external and internal realities of place and being. Much of his early practice reflects the political and existential anguish of post-colonial southern Africa; similarly, the broad-ranging work produced during his time in Newcastle centres most prominently on themes relating to migration, identity and cultural dislocation. Since leaving academe, his art has tended toward a more intuitive approach, exploring a diverse array of subjects, many derived from his literary interests. Graham has also forged a significant career as a writer, exploring associated themes of land and identity in three novels, Clouds like Black Dogs (2003), Place of Birth (2006) and Lettah’s Gift (2011) and a novella, A Fulcrum of Infinities (2016), which won this year’s prestigious Griffith Review Novella Competition.
FROM L-R: More than This, That passes All, Lazarus | 2016 | oil on card 21 x 16.5 cm | signed LR | $1,500 each or $4,000 as triptych
Carry that Weight | 2016 | oil on card | 50.7 x 75.5 cm | signed LL | $4,250
LEFT: Wall Eye | 2015 | oil on card | 51 x 38 cm | signed LR | $2,150 MIDDLE: If this Be | 2016 | oil on card | 40 x 35.5 cm | signed LR | $2,900 RIGHT: Yellow Nose | 2015 | oil on card | 51 x 38 cm | signed LR | $2,150
Land Text | 2016 | oil and ink on card | 38 x 51 cm | signed LR | $2,650
Burden | 2016 | oil on card | 74 x 50.5 cm | signed LL | $4,250
LANDSCAPES
I’ve always been drawn to deserts. In Africa, I particularly loved the desolate expanses of South Africa’s Karoo and Namibia’s great sand desert, the Namib. This attraction to vast empty space where life seems precariously balanced (and hence more intense) has persisted here in Australia. My favourite idea of a break from university teaching in Newcastle was to pack my ute with sketching gear and head off into far-west NSW, a region that inspired many landscape-related projects and exhibitions. I’ve also spent weeks in a campervan-turned-studio exploring the McDonnell Ranges, an experience that continues to feed my art and soul. Adapting to the Tasmanian landscape has been a challenge. At first glance, the wet and verdant green vistas of my home in the Huon could not appear more different to the parched sun-blasted outback. And yet in the sublime vastness of Tasmania’s wilderness the same sense of existential precariousness prevails. The landscapes in this exhibition therefore attempt to integrate iconic beauty with existential threat.
LEFT: A Fulcrum of Infinties I | 2016 | oil on canvas | 120 x 180 cm | $8,500 TOP: The Lazarus Paradox | 2016 | oil on maxi-T board | 122 x 122 cm | signed LR | $8,500
Desolate| 2016 | oil on card | 55 x 76 cm | signed LL | $3,500
The Sorrow of Lazarus | 2016 | oil on maxi-T board | 122 x 122 cm | signed LR | $8,500
Fulcrum/Leak | 2016 | oil on card | 51 x 73.5 cm | signed LR | $3,950
Sisyphus (detail) | 2016 | oil on card | 76 x 51 cm | signed LR | $4,250
Land Tilt | 2016 | oil on card | 37 x 49 cm | signed LR | $2,650
Infinity Finite | 2016 | oil on card | 62 x 91 cm | signed LL | $4,950
For more information and available works please contact Steven Joyce 03 62 238266 hobart@despard-gallery.com.au Upstairs 15 Castray Esplanade Hobart TAS 7000