From Sharne Wolff…
You’ve got to admire an artist who makes the kind of art that attracts descriptors like ‘monstrous’, ‘wild’, ‘unruly’ and ‘grotesque’. New Zealander, Rohan Wealleans’ reputation for outrageous excess often precedes his exhibitions. Although his work traverses various media, Wealleans latest offering Dark White Light Black continues his interest in the physicality of paint.As always, there’s plenty of it. Shrinking the gap between painting and sculpture, Wealleans covers his paintings with umpteen layers of the stuff before carving the surface into mollusc-like divots or piling it with protrusions built from refashioned paint waste. Here, some works pare back on colour while Wealleans trademark ‘horror-gamis’ inject the show with an extraordinary sci-fi exoticism.
Possessing a different kind of energy, Lindy Lee’s series of firestone bronze sculptures are displayed in Fire Over Heaven. Created from molten bronze in three-dimensions as an extension of her earlier ‘flung-ink’ painting and ‘flung-bronze’ wall works, the firestones are borne Lee’s desire to further engage with the essential elements of Zen. In a process requiring intense heat to ensure the fluidity of the metal, once cool the firestones are highly polished to reveal the gold within. The completed works resemble Chinese scholars’ stones, highly regarded for their particular aesthetic and meditative qualities.
Until November 8
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Paddington
Pic: Rohan Wealleans Kang Diamond, 2014,paint on canvas. Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley Gallery.
