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Michael Adamson & Matthew VareyPrima Materia July 31 - August 28, 1999 |
 Michael Adamson Perfect Game oil on canvas 24" X 20" 1999 |
 Michael Adamson To the Earth oil on canvas 14" X 11" 1999 |
 Matthew Varey untitled (detail) mixed media on canvas 1999 |
 Matthew Varey untitled (detail) mixed media on canvas 1999 |
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"...painting is water and stone, and it is also liquid thought... " Michael Adamson's new paintings reveal the artist's concern with material as vocabulary and the numinous processes whereby paint absorbs action and thought and finally takes on formal life. By building up a series of complex poly-rhythms based on colour and texture, he seems to seek pattern and order from the chaos of the materiality of paint: oil and pigment, water and stone. In "Perfect Game" small organic colour forms cluster together like a nucleus and are surrounded by fields which could be pages from a text, experiences, or thoughts. The strength in this series of works lies in the dynamic tension set up between the manipulation of a substance to reveal its properties and the external pattern created, between surface and representation, as we realize that the patterns may also be read as aerial views of a possible earth. Strong alchemical references are evident in the work of Matthew Varey, whose "canvases" seem to freeze the churning flux of substances in a slick, solid skin. Working with base materials that are human-made and often toxic, Varey begins with liquids which he compounds with pigments, mixes and pours, and then leaves to solidify. As the materials settle and transform, a process which is often very time-consuming, strange patterns emerge, sometimes resembling human tissue, cells, or microscopic plant life. The evocative power of these works stems from their ability to fix a series of transformations and the explosive motion of one liquid through another. Here, the patterning is less a conscious manipulation on the part of artist as a trace of his process and we are left to contemplate these deceivingly simple objects whose smooth, glassy surfaces are in sharp contrast to their visceral, chemically forboding interiors. Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11:00 - 5:00 For information, telephone (416) 920 3820 |