David Nixon – Growth

GROWTH David Nixon

Equilibrium (detail) 2014, lithograph, 50 x 65cm

Collaborations can yield exceptional results when participants bring their best to the partnership. Aware of the skills and temperament of both Japanese master lithographer Satoru Itazu and Australian artist David Nixon, I could foresee the potential in this unique collaboration.

Both these artisans work with meticulous care and have a strong affinity for their craft and materials.

I had the pleasure of studying collaborative lithography with Itazu at the prestigious Tamarind Institute, USA, in the mid-1980s, and of teaching Nixon in his undergraduate degree at the Queensland College of Art in 2004–2005.

In November 2014, these two gifted individuals worked together for three weeks at Itazu’s Tokyo workshop.

The final outcome is a powerful body of work; Nixon’s spellbinding visual mantras are realised through Itazu’s superb craftsmanship.

beautiful ancient wooden temples near their home. He also acknowledged the Japanese reverence to water, stone, bamboo, and their heritage. His work reflects many of these observations as well as the pulsating rhythms evident in nature.

During this time, Nixon was invited into the Itazu home, where he absorbed the Japanese ambience of their residence and its surroundings.

This Japanese cultural immersion clearly had a profound effect on the artist. In conversation with Nixon, he reflected on the gentle and generous Itazu family, their humble and compact home, the walks in the nearby park and gardens, and visits to the

I congratulate David Nixon and Satoru Itazu in producing this exquisite series of lithographic prints.

Russell Craig 2015

Seed (detail) 2015, relief etching, 40 x 25cm

The primary focus of this exhibition is a culmination of lithographs created with the master lithographer Satoru Itazu at his studio in Chofu, Tokyo. This was fundamentally a collaborative residency. Itazu’s technical proficiency was impeccable, based upon thirty years of extensive experience.

an animistic entity interpenetrating with consciousness. The physical world can be perceived as thought solidified. The residency reconfirmed my understanding that had become somewhat dormant: regenerative energies inherent in gardening can be analogous to various creative disciplines.

Itazu’s responsive sensitivity contributed towards our creative intersection, generating new trajectories of making art that would not be possible from my singular initiative. This residency was exemplary of how effectively art embodies the important value of communication. The title ‘Growth’ alludes to an aesthetic theme of the work and an artistic renewal.

Seeking a lightness of being combined with defined form, working with soft crayon on aluminium conveyed a sense of growth surfacing as textures.

An explorative response to these materials revealed an idiosyncrasy from which stemmed a personal visual vocabulary. Distilling the motion of structural, inner rhythms of nature, the vitality and elasticity of the verb in the work is evident in its outcomes. This corresponds with the emphasis printmaking necessarily places upon process. An alternative imagery was developed by engaging with coalescing, tonal nuances yielded from limestone. There is an intriguing,

An inspiring Autumnal presence in the garden environment at Chofu was conducive to working with the awareness of how nature relates to art not only as a grand exemplar, but as

inherent paradox in working on hard stone: the visual surface is gradually softened.

Works on paper interest me symbolically as a diaphanous veil between the material and immaterial.

Their quietness shapes how they invite a viewer’s participation. This correlates with a meditative approach to their making. The silence of a garden can be a cryptic space, in which to listen for the motion of life.

I am grateful for Arts Queensland for funding this exhibition. It was a significant privilege to work with Satoru Itazu.

David Nixon 2015

Clockwise from top left Growth (detail) 2014, lithograph, 50 x 65cm Wheel (detail) 2014, lithograph, 28 x 19cm Undergrowth (detail) 2014, lithograph, 54 x 69cm

“For the artist, dialogue with nature remains a conditio sine qua non.”

(Paul Klee) “I don’t think art comes from art... I think it comes from the awakening person.”

(Isamu Noguchi)

GROWTH David Nixon Friday, 21st August – Tuesday 1 September 2015 Brisbane Institute of Art 41 Grafton St, Windsor QLD 4030 brisart.org Cover Image: Growth 2014, lithograph, 50 x 65cm

ISBN: 9781922216816