WHAT NEXT: SCOTT GARDINER
Why Pay Attention?
A multiple finalist in the prestigious Wallace Art Awards in New Zealand and a regular participant at the Auckland Art Fair, this popular Kiwi artist has just returned to his homeland after a two-year stint in Australia to stage a major show for Paul Nache Gallery in Gisborne. Having exhibited in Sri Lanka, Berlin and Auckland in recent years, he has just been picked up by Galerie Pompom in Sydney where he will present his first solo exhibition in 2019.
What Does He Do?
Gardiner creates evocative multimedia works on canvas incorporating pigment, ink prints, acrylics, gloss and matt varnish to create collage-like abstract compositions that reveal his passion for the sea. The picture surface is dominated by photorealist ocean imagery overlaid with bold geometric forms, creating an uneasy alliance between lyrical realism and hard-edge abstraction. n his latest series of large scale paintings, the artist has replaced much of the wave imagery with gestural linework, suggesting the rhythmic waves through painterly brushwork.
What’s Going On?
Gardiner is exploring the juxtaposition between solid abstract forms that represent human logic and rationality and the flow of light and motion across the surface of water summoning the creative forces of nature. For this keen surfer the ocean has always been the central theme of his work, promoting an environmental consciousness as well as loosely evoking our universal search for meaning.
THE ARTIST SAYS …
“This new body of work has seen my focus shift from the ocean’s depths to the boundary between land and sea … As a surfer this notion of ‘crossing the threshold’ is a reality encountered on a regular basis, leaving the safety of the land for the cold and unpredictable embrace of the sea is often a heady mix of fear and exhilaration, satiating a desire for adventure while longing for safety … Making art, like entering a tumultuous, lonely ocean requires the desire and ability to set aside our fears, cast off the shackles of uncertainty and cross the threshold into the unknown.”
SEE IT AT…
Scott Gardiner, The Depths And The Shallows
17 October –17 November 2018
PAULNACHE GALLERY, Gisborne • Aotearoa • New Zealand
Sydney Art writer and editor, Victoria Hynes
