Gregory Hodge constructs kaleidoscopic abstractions from a mélange of source material including painted abstract motifs on drafting film, coloured paper and masking tape, before rendering these collages in paint. Using complex and systematic technical processes such as trompe-l’oeil, cast shadows and manipulating paints' translucent and opaque qualities, the paintings playfully mimic the physical fragility and provisional nature of the source material.
Read MoreThis visual trickery within the abstract picture space presents the viewer with multiple visual experiences. Surface and materiality become imaginative entry points yielding potential clues as traces of the process are tacitly signalled via the shadows and illusion of collage. Hodge’s work exudes a sense of the material presence of painting via a concern with light, colour and surface, while calling to mind the perceptual associations of vision via the illusionistic picture space. The paintings blur the boundaries between two and three dimensionality and playfully explore the space between image and reality, representation and abstraction.
Hodge has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions within Australia. In 2012 he had a solo exhibition at TCB Gallery in Melbourne and is the recipient of the 2014 Australia Council Rome Residency. He also participated in the exhibitions Clean Living at Contemporary Art Space, Tasmania (2012), and Word of Mouth, Canberra Museum and Gallery (2012). Hodge was a finliast at the 2013 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, Sydney, as well as the Blake Prize, Galleries UNSW, COFA Sydney (2013).
Text courtesy Sullivan + Strumpf.
