Adam Cullen - Rednecks & Pigdogs

Rednecks & Pigdogs Adam Cullen

01 March till 29 March 2014

Adam Cullen - Rednecks & Pigdogs These days more then ever, the culture of the contemporary demands that artists be visually provocative. Every new kid on the block wants to be labelled as the art world’s ‘enfant terrible’. In recent times, few artists have deserved that rap.

Adam Cullen did.

Cullen first rose to infamy at art school, chaining a rotting pig’s head to his ankle and leaving it there to be dragged around for a week. From that point on, a vast slice of his work has not been for the faint-hearted, and his defiant career often sits uneasily with his wealth of establishment credentials.

Cullen’s application of paint is hurried, almost slapdash. Famously, he spent only three hours creating a portrait of actor David Wenham, winning the Archibald Prize in 2000 to the sound of horrified gasps from many art world stalwarts.

Quick, wet gestures contrast with clean backgrounds of pure colour, each visual aspect providing relief from the other. Cullen’s confident black line asserts control over these two contrary effects, keeping background and foreground distinct.

This aggressive, energetic approach to the medium is often mirrored by his corporeal subject matter. Tortured or bloodthirsty beasts and over-sexualised women represent the most base and primal aspects of the human psyche, doubling as allegories for the condition of contemporary society. In Untitled (Stag) 2010, Cullen’s messy yet controlled ambiguity renders the details of the beast‘s flesh near unrecognisable. As hunted prey, the stag‘s dripping muzzle and bloodied

eye are evocative of grotesque emotion; pain and fear. Cullen‘s representations of more predatory beasts, humans and dogs, communicate more aggressive sensations. In Pain is Nearly Release, 2010 a man poses with his monstrous kill, lit up against an unapolegetically yellow background. A narrative of violence, pursuit, struggle is implied.

The vigour of Cullen‘s colours and gestures combine with the depicted bloodlust, passion, intent and pride to create a uniquely human portrait of sensations.

Despite these expressions of violence, this exhibition is free of value judgments.

Cullen was himself an avid pig hunter. Inspiration for this exhibition was taken from ‘piggin’’ magazines, such as ‚Bacon Busters‘ and ‚Boar it up Ya‘, and a great deal was drawn from Cullen‘s personal experience.

Adam Cullen Shackled Young Brumby, 2010 acrylic on canvas 102 x 102 cm

Adam Cullen The Happy Dog, 2010 acrylic on canvas 213 x 183 cm

Adam Cullen Pain is nearly release, 2010 acrylic on canvas 213 x 183 cm

Adam Cullen Untitled (Bull), 2010 acrylic on canvas 91 x 91 cm

Adam Cullen Untitled (stag), 2010 acrylic on canvas 91 x 91 cm

Adam Cullen Goth Pig Girl, 2010 acrylic on canvas 213 x 183 cm

Adam Cullen Hog, 2010 acrylic on canvas 122 x 122 cm

Adam Cullen Mega Fauna (Horse/Roo), 2011 acrylic on canvas 183 x 183 cm

Adam Cullen Untitled (Dog), 2010 acrylic on canvas 91 x 91 cm

Adam Cullen Big Pig (Boar), 2011 bronze 77 x 70 x 160 cm edition of 3

Adam Cullen Far away, 2001 etching 8.0 x 8.5 cm 2/10

Adam Cullen Roo, 2010 etching 15.0 x 9.5 cm 6/10

Adam Cullen Dog, 2001 etching with gouache 24.5 x 27.5 cm 5/10

Adam Cullen Dog Man, 2001 etching 10.0 x 8.5 cm 2/10

Adam Cullen Mutant Ferals, 2010 etching 50 x 59cm 4/20

Adam Cullen Dead clown, 2001 etching 50 x 38 cm 1/6

Adam Cullen Chicken Man, 2001 etching 50 x 37 cm 1/15

Adam Cullen Cullen’s reputation as a hell-raiser often overshadows his practice. The frequently told stories of how at art school he chained a rotting pig’s head to his ankle and dragged it around; of his friendship with Mark “Chopper” Read; and about his problems with drugs and guns were headline grabbers but, as so often, tell only part of the story.

When working in his studio in the Blue Mountains, Cullen was a quiet and intuitive artist responding to an everyday barrage of images, words and sounds. “I’ve always seen my work as a kind of a document of that direct and intimate exposure to information overload,” he once said.

Paint, vigorously applied, drips down his canvases of grimacing clowns, animals, headless women, religious subjects, celebrities and – frequently - his beloved dog, Growler. His images, often dotted with fragments of satirical and anti-establishment text, has much in common with the punk movement of the 1970s that he so admired and whose escapism he wanted to emulate in his paintings.

Although Cullen’s work had a hurried look to it, his contemplation of how he would execute his ideas was far from rushed. His portrait of David Wenham famously took just three hours to complete but he acknowledged that he had spent a lot of time staring at the blank canvas and thinking before starting to paint. When it was announced that the portrait had won the 2000 Archibald Prize, many in the art world were horrified.

Cullen was, in the words of Edmund Capon, former Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, ‘the scourge of the prim and the pious’, but he undeniably pushed the boundaries of Australian contemporary art and influenced a new generation of painters, many of whom chose him as the subject for their own work.

Cullen’s work is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia and all of the state galleries. He was a finalist in the Archibald Prize every year from 1997-2004 and the winner in 2000.

Adam Cullen 1965-2012 Lived and worked in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales Education 1999

Master of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales

1987 Graduate Diploma of Professional Art Studies, City Art Institute 1986

Bachelor of Fine Arts, City Art Institute

Solo Exhibitions (selected) 2011

Yesterday is still here today, Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney

2010

Rednecks and Pigdogs, Michael Reid at Murrurundi, Murrurundi

2009

Adam Cullen : works from 1995-2009, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney

They You Trust, Them You Don’t Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

A DEATH LIKE NO OTHER, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide

2008

Let’s get lost, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

2007

I AM THE CHEESE, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney

Stupid Heaven, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide

2006

Between the Lines: Works on Paper 1995 – 2005, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

Between the Lines: Works on Paper 1995 – 2005, Penrith Regional Gallery and Lewers Bequest, Sydney

2005

Product of Compulsion, Michael Reid, Sydney

Let Me Tell You About My Day, Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide

Maintaining The Rage, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney

2004

Pure Sanctimony, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

On my Knees Looking Up, Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

2003

Future Dirt, Contemporary Art Centre, South Australia

Far and Away, Yuill Crowley Gallery, Sydney

Our Place in the Pacific, touring show to regional galleries

in Newcastle, Cairns, Gold Coast and Toowoomba

2002

UnAustralian, Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

2001

Night and Day, Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

The Placebo Effect, Artspace, Sydney

2000

Value, ACCA, Melbourne

Miss Gin Gin Showgirl (with Dale Frank), Hazelhurst Regional Gallery

Interpersonal, Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

1999

Blind Side, Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide; IMA, Brisbane

Hotel/Motel; Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

Genuine Imitation, First Floor, Melbourne

1998

Amateur Exorcist, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand

Self-Loving, Fiat Lux, Auckland, New Zealand

Touch and Go, Level 2 Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

World Fantasy, Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney,

1997

Special, Yuill Crowley Gallery, Sydney

I only think about you when I’m drunk, Test Strip,

Auckland, New Zealand

Life Fitness, Artspace, Sydney

1996

The Australian Labor Party, Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

Live Rock, CBD Gallery, Sydney

1995

Class, Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

Peace is Cool, CBD Gallery, Sydney

1994

Soft Material Facts, Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

Special Galore Type, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne

Homoerotic, CBD Gallery, Sydney

1993

Software, Selenium Gallery, Sydney

August, CBD Gallery, Sydney

Lucifer (with Matthys Gerber), Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

Heterocampstick, Black Gallery, Sydney

Group Exhibitions (selected) 2012

murr-ma: Uncovering Aboriginal & Australian

Contemporary art, Halle am Wasser and Preview Berlin,

Michael Reid, Berlin

2009

Hybrid, Artereal Gallery, Sydney

2008

Leading Lights, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts,

University of New South Wales

True Crime: murder and misdemeanour in Australian Art,

Geelong Gallery, Geelong, Victoria

Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Redleaf Council Chambers, Sydney

Blake Prize, National Art School Gallery, Sydney

Bon Scott Project, Fremantle Arts Centre, Western Australia

2007

Who let the dogs out?, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery,

New South Wales

Salon Des Refusés, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney

2006

The Kilgour Prize, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Newcastle

Fantastic Voyage, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney

Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

2005

A Special Exhibition, Kedumba Gallery, Wentworth Falls

Unscripted, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Special Affects, MOP Projects, Redfern

The Sound of Painting, The Art Centre, Melbourne

Campbelltown Bling, Campbelltown City Gallery

Extinction Denied, Art House Hotel, Sydney

Icons Framed, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney

Salon Des Refusés, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney

Art On The Rocks, Sydney Visitor’s Centre, The Rocks, Sydney

Identity and Desire, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

The Grey Voice, Tin Sheds, University of Sydney

Interesting Times, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Wild Beasts, Grey Matter, Glebe

2004

Extinction Denied, Arthouse, Sydney

Art and About, Various outdoor locations, Sydney

The Visibility of Practice, Cell Block, National Art School, Sydney

2003

The Meaning of Everything, Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Six Degrees of Separation, Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

Foxed, Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

Anita and Beyond, Penrith Regional Gallery

2002

Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Hooky the Cripple, published with Mark Read, Pluto Press, Sydney

Bitter Sweet, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

25th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil

ARCO 2002, Madrid Art Fair, Madrid, Spain

Kedumba Drawing Prize, Kedumba Gallery, New South Wales

Group Exhibition, Yuill|Crowley Gallery, Sydney

Awards (selected) 2000

Winner, Archibald Prize

1997-2004 Finalist, Archibald Prize 2004

Finalist, Sulman Prize

2002

Finalist, Doug Moran Prize (highly commended)

2002

Finalist, Blake Prize

Collections Monash University Gallery Art Gallery of South Australia Art Gallery of Western Australia Artbank AMP Australia Kedumba Gallery Australian National Gallery Gold Coast City Art Gallery Griffith University Geelong Art Gallery Art Gallery of New South Wales National Gallery of Victoria The Collection of Sir Elton John

01 March till 29 March 2014