18 October – 11 November 2023
Opening Event Friday 20 October 5:30pm
Despard Gallery is proud to host a special joint exhibition between established Tasmanian artists Wayne Brookes and Lucia Usmiani.
With careers both spanning decades, Brookes and Usmiani are key figures in the Tasmanian arts scene, each forging unique paths of influence. This exhibition not only brings together two friends, but two artists that are dedicated to the principles of making. They both independently seek out methods in their practice that abide to the belief that authenticity in art stems from hard work and the learned knowledge from honing their craft.
With an obsessive eye and deft painterly touch, Brookes is the master of the ornate and the overlooked. Through a new suite of acrylic paintings, Brookes reveals an intimate world of beautiful objects that hum with stories of personal familiarity, yet universal significance. Through creative diligence and meticulous methodologies, Usmiani has created a suite of wall-based sculptures that repurpose the humble matchstick into artworks of stunning complexity. Echoing the nostalgic charm of traditional craft-based practices, Usmiani pays tribute to the importance of generational knowledge, whilst simultaneously embracing the kitsch qualities of Australiana. In concert, the works of Brookes and Usmiani both draw awareness to the importance of our everyday surroundings. This includes the role that our domestic spaces, and more specifically the ordinary objects that inhabit them, have in shaping and reflecting our cultural, social and personal identity.
Click here to register your interest for Wayne Brookes & Lucia Usmiani.
