Mark Rodda presents two separate series of paintings in Ephemeral Archipelago & Estuary Lookout.
Constellations of marks, textures and shapes gently drift, separate and bond together in Ephemeral Archipelago, suggesting a world that is micro and cellular, as well as a landscape of more cosmic proportions. Rodda deploys a repertoire of brushstrokes and gestures in these works – sticky accretions of paint contrast with transparent washes, watery flecks of colour and the smoothly sanded timber supports.
In Estuary Lookout, the artist reintroduces his mysterious cast of characters to these floating worlds. He describes these more representational paintings as ‘pin boards’ that hold disconnected fragments of imagery. Rather than convey narrative, he tries to create a feeling of what he calls ‘relaxed but engaged freedom’ – the landscape of the mind in an untamed state of reverie.
Rodda has held over 17 solo exhibitions in Australia and New Zealand and has shown in group exhibitions and festivals internationally and around the country. In 2013 he was a finalist in the Wynne Prize for landscape at the Art Gallery of NSW and in 2014 won the Glover Prize, Australia’s richest prize for landscape painting. Rodda is represented in private and public collections including Artbank, the Glover Prize Collection and the Trust Bank Collection. This is his third exhibition at Gallery 9.
Press release courtesy Gallery 9.
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