A Fulcrum of Infinities
Graham Lang
Opening Wednesday 31 August 5.30pm
31 August – 25 September 2016
“Despard is proud to present Graham Lang’s second solo exhibition, here at the gallery. Graham arrived in Tasmania in 2011, first coming in to Despard Gallery in late 2013 with some paintings that he hoped may be of interest – they were. As a gallerist for over thirty years, I still get excited seeing new paintings that touch a chord with my aesthetic. Graham’s work did just that. His figurative works are compelling, the mythological characters of the Minotaur and Ophelia are balanced by his landscapes that often incorporate a human figure. The thinly brushed textures are reminiscent of the 1950’s – 60’s works of Sydney Nolan. Lang is a master of applying oil paint in broad strokes that still appear delicate, Graham says of his work”. Steven Joyce, August 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.” Graham Lang, July 2016
More information about the artist click here: Graham Lang artist profile
Article about Graham Lang and his new body of work in the Mercury – TasWeekend – August 27-28 2016 – click here
Full catalogue online click here: Graham Lang – A Fulcrum of Infinities
Available works…. (see catalogue for all available works)
Gallery views…
