Chris Bury is an emerging painter based in nipaluna/Hobart, lutruwita/Tasmania. Through candid portraits, Bury’s practice explores the psychological strains that underpin the human condition in contemporary society. Compositions evolve through a unique combination of painterly applications, contrasting coarse textures and strong colour against methods of erasure and blurring. Each figure becomes distorted through translation, exposing a hidden subconscious, seemingly aggravated by inner conflicts and decayed perception. Bury’s current work stems from a recent artist residency undertaken in Berlin, inspired by the no-curfew nightclubs and diverse array of people that give life to the darkened warehouses and defunct energy plants.
‘The atmosphere outside is pretentious as you wait patiently for your judgment and hopeful acceptance. However, once inside the ethos relaxes quickly out of judgement and into a freedom of dancing, open conversation and unfiltered self-expression.’
By deliberately disturbing the surface of each painting, Bury evokes a physical response in the viewer, their rawness echoing the uninhibited freedom of his subjects. However, it also suggests growing inner conflict, where elements of beauty, indulgence and escapism are juxtaposed against a sense of disassociation, disorientation and the grotesque. At the centre of Bury’s painting is capturing a passing moment of time. Reminiscent of a photographic blur, figures are suspended in perpetual motion, once present, but ultimately disconnected from reality.
Exhibitions
