Nick Drake - 'overThink' exhibition catalogue

overTHINK

Nick Drake

31 January - 15 March 2020 | Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts. 408 Flinders St, Townsville

Apply random thought to something and capture representations of nonsensically clear moments. Superfluous thoughts pass in translucent happenings, such as the purchase of fast food, or something you happen to hear or smell at the same time as seeing a famous relic in a museum for the first time. Travelling makes these moments difficult to capture. Nicholas Drake in his exhibition overThink challenges this notion, showing that travel notes can become the protagonist for paintings that move, sound, motivate, embody and sometimes cause unease.

Away from home on family holiday, removed from the studio, ritual, limited by time and transience, Drake’s mind is empowered as the key tool for catchment.

He redistributes through paint, writings and memories captured, a phenomenon known as ‘shower thoughts’. Drake states ‘I simply notate what enters my perspective and the painting forms, motivated by the appearing symbol’.

With surprisingly topical points like when running out of hors d’oeuvres is your biggest problem, or getting lost in translation when your wife’s second cousin once removed sees a kite when you see an eagle, Drake’s humorous paintings spotlight simple, overlooked and dreamy subjects reminiscent of the intent in work by Edward Hopper but without the melancholy and lingering brush strokes.

Instead, Drake’s swift, compartmentalising mind shows strong cerebral presence comparable to Jean-Michel Basquiat, his confident use of text breathing self into the works and as seen in ‘Potting Mix’ his abandonment of contextual structures, allowing dream states to govern.

A sense of obsession is captured in the urgent release of his subject matter, perhaps reflecting his feelings about transitioning away from landscape painting.

Words enter the substrate unpermitted and consequently powerful. Like the gentle yet wise words in ‘Arendelle’ painted over a strong fiery background, the subjects are all meant to be there but don’t ask to be contextualised, much like an unrelated voice over. The light that would normally decorate one of his landscapes disappears into a dark, void like space, filled with humorous yet contemplative observations of human character seen in So what… are we just gonna stand around eating junk food all day?” (portrait of the artist Christopher Bassi from memory). It’s as though a collectively conscious account is being made: the contrast of Drake’s previously strong impressionistic land and city scapes could be answerable.

Finally, you could be forgiven for sensing a parody of the propaganda aesthetic in this exhibition. Bold letters and touchy topics evident in One weekend; broad strokes and strongly contrasting shapes in Clothed voices and demanding yet absurd messages used in Anyhow all embody a comical sense of attaining power. Nicholas Drake’s paintings individually impart a strong awareness of their audience while collectively remaining loyal to the intimate gaze of the artist in his dance with colliding internal and external worlds.

Clare Cowley, 2020

OPENING LAUNCH

6pm Friday 31 January 2020

ARTIST FLOOR TALK

11am Saturday 1 February 2020

IMAGE LIST

Page 1: Nick Drake, The Promise (detail), 2019, oil on linen, 61 x 91cm.

Page 2: Nick Drake, Daydream (detail), 2018, oil on canvas, 91 x 122cm. | Page 3: Nick Drake, Thoughts found in solitude in Yorkshire transposed onto canvas six months later on the other side of the world (Anna’s case) (detail), 2019, oil on linen, 76 x 102cm. | Page 4: Nick Drake, The Promise, 2019, oil on linen, 61 x 91cm.

Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts OPEN Mon-Fri 9-5 / Sat-Sun 9-1 ADD 408 Flinders St, Townsville TEL 4772 7109 WEB www.umbrella.org.au

Umbrella Studio is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, state and territory governments.