Young Emerging Artists. ‘Locals Lonely’

Chris Zanko, Hannah Bradbury, India Mark , Nick Santoro.

I caught the tail end of a refreshing exhibition last weekend at Thirroul’s Egg and Dart Gallery. ‘Locals Lonely’ revealed the talent of four young artists living in the area . All artists are recent graduates of various art schools and each exhibited  a distinctively different style/medium/genre.

Chris Zanko was a fellow student at West Wollongong TAFE and my curiosity drew me to Thirroul when I heard of his great work.

 

 

Chris has captured the charm and authenticity of classic , older buildings ,icons familiar to locals in the Northern Illawarra area. These lino and wood carvings are handcoloured with acrylic paint. Minimal tonal variations with strong contrast, limited palette, distinguishing vivid blue skies and the textural surface of the carved wood present  a consistent body of work in keeping with the character of the buildings. With the current’ Stop Overdevelopment in our Suburbs‘ campaign, Chris’ subject matter highlights the strength of older style architectural design and the value of it’s humble aesthetic amongst new developments.

All of Chris’ paintings sold on opening night.

India Mark’s small intimate and sensitive oil paintings radiate a sense of calm and intrigue. Reminiscent of  Australian Tonalist artists of the early 20^th century and masters such as Velasquez and Rembrandt, her portraits in particular are brought down to a simplicity.

 

With economy of brushstrokes and colour and large masses of tone, India has produced the sensation of atmosphere, light and space.Lovely to see lots of red dots on India’s paintings also.

Her still life painting is a study in paring back to the essential elements of tone, shape and composition and this works particularly well.

 

 

 

 

 

Nick Santoro’s mischievous , narrative paintings are full of colour and playfulness with a candid look at the insignificant and often bizarre encounters in our lives.His paintings , using gouache, oil, acrylic, ink and watercolour are bold with a flattened perspective, strong compositions.

 

A delightful  variety of painted patterning and textures breaking up large opaque areas of colour provide a stylized and idiosynchratic  element to his paintings.

 

 

 

Hannah Bradbury’s clay, wood fired sculptural pieces elicit moods of some primeval force of nature.

 

 

 

Textures are reminiscent of raw earth, geological formations, matter and detritus from some upheaval of massive earth structures. They are physical, rugged and elemental and a reminder of what our civilizations are built on, literally. The titles Hannah has selected for her sculptures orchestrate the raw materials. The rusticity of the clay and it’s limitations/possibilities lends itself to this strong collection of work.

All paintings were exquisitely framed by Egg and Dart and the exhibition was simply and effectively curated  highlighting the quality of the work.

For further information see the links below:

http://czartwork.tumblr.com/

 

http://www.egganddart.com.au/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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