From Sharne Wolff...
Having seized the privilege of gracing last year’s publication ‘100 Painters of Tomorrow’ with New Smart Object #64, the work of New Zealand’s Andre Hemer has recently garnered international attention. Hemer’s luminous paintings straddle the divide between digital and physical realms. Painting with acrylic and pigment on canvas, he combines rich painterly metallics, smooth gestures and arbitrary splodges to make striking images. Flipping through the online catalogue it’s almost impossible to know how each image is created and whether it’s real or ‘fake’. But, hey, that’s the point. In an interview with Oliver Watts, the artist says, “…the complexity of the digital transaction and a process of sampling between many different forms of media that has led to a new way of making – and also potentially of seeing. ”
Exhibiting at the same time is Circuit from Sydney’s Elliot Bryce Foulkes. Already well known for his day job in art design and direction, Foulkes’ unleashes his trained eye onto everyday materials. Playing with textures and a diverse range of materials that include leather, perspex, glitter, foam and paper, Foulkes’ bold mashups expose new freshness in the familiar. Meanwhile his neon Light Scribble – think Tracy Emin meets a Karl Haendel mural – contributes a whimsical sign-off.
Until 7 March
Chalk Horse Gallery, Darlinghurst
Pic: Elliot Bryce Foulkes Polymath 2015 [Installation image], paper and vinyl, 24.5 x 32cm. Courtesy the artist and Chalk Horse Gallery.
