'I like that painting can seduce, that the content can be provocative, sublime, and aggressive at the same time. You never know what you are looking at. The reflective surface is like escapism; it shows the image of something that happens somewhere else. The work in its pure form, it could be said, exists only when you are NOT looking at it. In a way you never know what the work is, conceptually speaking. Painting today must live with its own contradictions, in the ugliness of its own beauty, and in the beauty of its own impossibility.'
—Dale Frank
Dale Frank's abstract paintings have been exhibited internationally since the 1980s, showing at PS1, New York, in 1981, the 1982 Biennale of Sydney, 42nd Venice Biennale in 1984, and in 1983, Frank was included in the exhibition Panorama della post - critica: critica ed arte at the Museo Palazzo Lanfranchi in Pisa along with Thomas Lawson and Anselm Kiefer. Recent selected group exhibitions include Unpainting, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2017-18); Dark Heart, curated by Nick Mitzevich, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (2014); Mix Tape 1980s: Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013); and Les Arts De L'effervescence Champagne, Musée des Beaux Arts de Reims, France (2013). In 2013, his work was featured in Personal Structures at the Palazzo Bembo as part of the official program of the 55th Venice Biennale. A major solo retrospective of his work was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney in 2000. Frank's work is held in all major Australian state galleries, and a number of regional and university collections. It is also held in international collections, including Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, New Zealand; Musée de Ville de Leige, Leige; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Zurich Kunsthaus; and a number of corporate collections.
Dale Frank has been represented by Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery since 1982.
Dale Frank is one of Australia’s foremost contemporary painters. His career spans over thirty years. In 1983, he was included in the exhibition, Panorama della post - critica: critica ed arte at the Museo Palazzo Lanfranchi in Pisa along with Thomas Lawson and Anselm Kiefer (curated by Helena Kontova). In 1984 he was included in the Aperto section of the Venice Biennale. Returning to Australia, in 1990 he was included in the 8th Biennale of Sydney (curated by Rene Block).
Established in Sydney by influential Australian art dealer and gallerist Roslyn Oxley and her husband Tony Oxley in 1982, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery is one of Australia’s leading commercial galleries.
