From Sharne Wolff…
If being popular is a crime then Shaun Gladwell needs a good lawyer. His video work Storm Sequence (2003) has been popular with curators and gallery visitors – and collectors – in 2007 the video achieved the Australian record for the highest price paid for a video work at auction. The artist has represented at the Venice Biennale in 2009 with his Maddus Maximus series. This month, in the year he turns 40, Gladwell is the subject of a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Gladwell’s videos capture the Australian landscape in unconventional ways. They are a bit like moving paintings and generally don’t use narrative. Although his subjects range from urban skateboard riders and cyclists to outback scenes of motorcycles and Mad Max cars, each work shares a certain poetic movement and examines the subject in its space.
Gladwell’s skill lies in his ability to transform the energy of his subject into a meditation for the viewer. This new exhibition encompasses a dual-channel video that takes Gladwell back to city streets to film beatboxers and dancers in different genres. Two paintings in the show have the video camera as their subject – portraits of technology which highlight paradoxes in both movement and innovation.
Until 21 October 2012
Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney.
Pic: Shaun Gladwell Broken Dance (Beatboxed) 2012 , production still, two-channel synchronised video. Image courtesy the artist & Anna Schwartz Gallery.
The Art Life’s ‘Exhibitions’ section previews new and upcoming shows of note. Like to be included? Send info + pics to: the art life at hot mail dot com. Include “Exhibitions” in the subject line.
