2 June – 26 June
OPENING EVENT – Wednesday 2 June, 5:30 pm.
Established artist Wayne Brookes delights the visual senses with a new suite of his distinctive opulent paintings in his eleventh solo exhibition with Despard Gallery, Opulence and Ostentation: a Covid Operation.
A visual narrator, Brookes’ uses paint to recount stories of ornate objects and the spaces they populate. An obsession with visual splendour underpins his arts practice, where personal experiences and historical narratives are often weaved together into a single composition. An infatuation with beautiful things is evident through his use of paint, revealing a compulsion to inject detail into every square inch of canvas. Within this new suite of works, Brookes continues his exlporation of animism, but on a decidedly more local plane, turning his eye towards significant historic Tasmanian venues, such as Government House. In keeping with his love of European opulence, Brookes presents a captivating exhibition that shimmers with the love of paint and paintings as beautiful objects.
ARTIST INTERVIEW
Despard Gallery is thrilled to present the latest video in our Artist Interview Series featuring Tasmanian painter, Wayne Brookes.
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‘A belief in animism and a desire to fuse cryptic stories together, means that when I enter a space, my immediate desire is to decipher what I experience and it compels me to retell this vision, this story in a painting. I am equally driven by a passion for extricating the inter-connectiveness of history and its participants. From the Chateau de Chantilly in France to the Victoria and Albert in England to Government House in Hobart, ‘ Opulence and Ostentation’ represents my absolute love of beauty, beautiful things in beautiful contexts.
The shift from representing European interiors and objects was initiated by the realisation that there are significant local examples of spectacle. Whereas the international musings have been significantly edited and embellished, the Tasmanian examples remain fairly faithful to the original images with only slight tweaking to underline what an exquisite visual visitation Government House is.’ – Wayne Brookes, May 2021
Click here to register your interest for Wayne Brookes.
EXHIBITION IMAGES
WAYNE BROOKES [left] Resurrection 2020 acrylic on canvas 50 x 40 cm SOLD [right] The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Crucifixion 2020 acrylic on canvas 50 x 40 cm SOLD
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
GALLERY VIEWS
VIRTUAL VIEWING ROOM
