From Sharne Wolff…
Energetically ranging across a broad spectrum of ideas, Gareth Sansom‘s latest exhibition shows that even after five decades of practice, his is a mind that’s never at rest. Having embraced collage, mixed media and printmaking in the past, the title Just Painting suggests a return to the essentials. For this display Sansom has restricted his medium to oil paints and enamels – the latter of which he began experimenting with in the 1960s. No such restraints operate on Sansom’s colour palette. Vivid pinks, oranges and yellows, reds and blues are employed in liberal doses – at times they’re all present in the same painting. Layers of paint randomly reveal and conceal.
Over the years, Sansom’s art has touched on dozens of themes. While many of his titles seem to propose a subject, Sansom is insistent that interpretations of his work rely solely on the viewer. Once absorbed, however, it’s hard not to associate Academic and Architect with certain characteristics of people we know in those occupations. There’s also a tendency to connect Dumb and Dumber and Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe with the movies of the same names. Ultimately, it’s Sansom’s unpredictability, humour and eclecticism that have kept him at the top of his field.
Until March 21
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Paddington
Pic: Gareth Sansom Academic 2014, oil and enamel on linen, 183 × 168cm. Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley Gallery.
