“Optimism. That’s what I want to be known for.” – Elissa Gjertson, Artist + Plastik Kembali Founder Continue reading
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Acrylic
28 x 25 x 27 cm
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I am an Australian born, Sydney-based artist.
My work has evolved from the ideology of abstract painting as a means of expression to create the tangible from the mind. The works are best described as a fusion between painting and sculpture, as three-dimensional forms which have been individually made by hand. The themes explored in my work include shaped canvases, monochrome, and the Finish Fetish movement in the USA 1960s; a collage of many ideas since I began my practice as an abstract painter 20 years ago.
In my practice, I explore alternative materials to break with conventions associated with painting. Through experimentation using transparencies such as plastic sheeting, my process has led me to the material polymethyl methacrylate (PMM). The shift in my practice from painting to three dimensional forms was primarily due to the inherent limitations with traditional materials used in painting, and while I practice with concepts associated with painting, my work identifies as sculpture. The material PMM (also known as acrylic) provides me with a finish that is inimitable. Historically, my work references the Finish Fetish movement “LA Look” of the 1960s in America which is characterized by pristine surfaces, use of fabrication technique and industrial material.
To create my works, I heat the PMM material in a furnace and then mold it by hand. The forms are free form and not fabricated to pre-existing prototypes. When heated the material has a limited working time while it is pliable, so my method is spontaneous and direct as I create the forms.
My focus is on surface, the external skin of the work, which I manipulate through texture, colour, and light to enhance visual aesthetics. The visceral qualities of the work are an important component of my intention. Tactility and sensory phenomena, via both vision and touch, are the essence of my work. I believe that artists can manipulate the tactile connections related to body and exploit external material qualities to arouse sensation and perception in the viewer. In my work, the material is at once transformed from the mundane to hyper-real.
The work can be wall mounted, suspended from hooks, and positioned on plinths or the floor to adapt to the space they are situated in, which determines the impact they have on the viewer.
EDUCATION
2017 Master of Fine Art, National Art School
2015 Bachelor Fine Art (Hons), National Art School 2014 Bachelor Fine Arts, National Art School
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 FOLD FETISH, .M Contemporary, Sydney, Australia
FOLD FETISH, My Micro Gallery, Milan, Italy
2023 SURFACE FETISH, .M Contemporary, Sydney, Australia
2022 FINISH FETISH, .M Contemporary, Sydney, Australia
2020 RUPTURE, SLOT, Sydney, Australia
Anya Pesce COVID-19 online, .M Contemporary, Sydney
2017 The Red Fold, Factory 49, Marrickville, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2016 Fantastik Plastik, Factory 49, Marrickville, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2008 Central Sydney Osteopathy Centre, Stanmore, Sydney, NSW, Australia
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Intimate Vignettes, .M Contemporary, Sydney, Australia Art in Mind, The Brick Lane Gallery, London
2023 Summer Group Show, .M Contemporary, Sydney, Australia
2022 Summer Group Show, .M Contemporary, Sydney, Australia
Articulate Turns Twelve, Articulate Project Space
Stand with Ukraine – The Butterfly Effect Art Auction, Tasmania With What Shall I Fix it, Manning Regional Gallery
Oceania and Auckland Art Fair, FHE Galleries, New Zealand
2021 Articulate Turns Eleven, Articulate Project Space Surface, .M Contemporary, Sydney
Oceania, FHE Galleries, New Zealand Orbit – Mona Foma, Tasmania Auckland Art Fair, New Zealand FRACAS, Articulate Project Space
2020 Blink of an Eye, Adelaide Convention Centre Wahlverwandtschaften, Articulate Project Space
Image Object, Mona Foma, Tasmania, Australia
2019 Summer Group Show, .M Contemporary, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Articulate Turns Nine, Articulate Project Space, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Carriageworks, Sydney, NSW, Australia
30 x 30: trente-a-trente, Abstract Projects, Paris
Winter Group, Studio Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
New Modern RNOP – The Road Paintings, Fivewalls, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Large Sculpture Show, Factory 49, Marrickville, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2018 Collaboration with Kerrie Brown, .M Contemporary, Sydney, NSW, Australia Culture Pop, .M Contemporary, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Hidden, Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney, NSW,
Australia AbstractionTwentyEighteen, Langford Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
The Other Art Fair, Australia Technology Park, Everleigh, Sydney, NSW,
Australia Ferret, Articulate Project Space, Sydney, NSW, Australia
The Paddock 2, Virtual Fields, Factory 49, Marrickville, Sydney, NSW,
Australia Fantastik Plastik, Factory 49, Marrickville, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Elemental, .M Contemporary, Sydney, NSW, Australia
It was here..or was it there?, Bondi Pavillion
2017 Do Not Touch Do Not Litter, Factory 49, Marrickville, Sydney, NSW,
Australia Resonance, ESD Gallery, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW, Australia
The Paddock 3: Posted to New York, Aloft Harlem, New York and Paris Annual Group Show
2017, Factory 49, Marrickville, Sydney, NSW, Australia Abstract Project Space, Paris, France
Supermarket Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden
Elemental, .M Contemporary, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Get Amongst It!, Gaffa Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2016 Articulate Turns Six: What Next?, Articulate Project Space, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Postgraduate Show (MFA), National Art School, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Flushed, Red,Rubicund and Scarlett, See St Gallery, Meadowbank, Sydney, NSW, Australia 2015 Considered, .M Contemporary, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Director’s Cut, Factory 49, Marrickville, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Postgraduate Show, National Art School
It was here..or was it there?, Bondi Pavillion, Sydney, NSW, Australia
NAS Honours Painting Exhibition, Library Stairwell, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Centenary Institute Fundraiser, Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Annual Group 2015, Factory 49, Marrickville, Sydney, NSW, Australia
The Paddock- Looking Back at the Field National Art School, Library Stairwell Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Australia To Be Continued…, Factory 49, Marrickville, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Multicoloured Hang selected, Saatchi & Saatchi Office, The Rocks Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Feral, Articulate Project Space, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2014 Undergraduate Show, National Art School, Sydney, NSW, Australia
4AA4 contemporary show, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia Greenland Centre, Bathurst St, Sydney, NSW, Australia
2011 Peregrine Programs, Chicago, USA
INTERNATIONAL EVENTS
2024 Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Carriageworks, Sydney
The Healing Gaze, Montserrat Contemporary Art, New York
2023 XIV Florence Art and Design Biennale, Florence, Italy
2023 Art in Mind, Brick Lane Gallery, London, UK
2023 Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Carriageworks, Sydney
2022 Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Carriageworks, Sydney
Oceania and Auckland Art Fair, FHE Galleries, New Zealand
2021 Auckland Art Fair, New Zealand
2019 Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Carriageworks, Sydney
30 x 30: pret-a-porter, Gallerie Abstract Project, France
2017 Supermarket Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweeden
The Paddock 3: Posted to New York, Aloft Harlem, New York and Paris
SYDNEY ART EXCHANGE
2022 Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Finalists, Manly Gallery Sydney With What Shall I Fix It, Manning Regional Gallery, Taree
2020 Wahlverwandtschaften, Articulate Project Space 2018 Hidden, Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney
AWARDS
2015 Nominated, Hatched 2016: National Graduate Show, Perth Institute Of Contemporary Arts, Perth, WA, Australia 2005 3rd Prize, Artists on Norton Competition Parliament House, Macquarie St, Sydney, NSW, Australia
PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
2023 THOU SHALT NOT COVET- the Abstraction of Desire, Lisa Pang.
2022 GREG NATALE, The Layered Interior,
2022 AUSTRALIAN WEEKEND Mansion, August
2022 DOMAIN: It doesn’t get any better than this: Inside the slick duplex that embraces colour and curves. Elizabeth Clarke ISSUU: FINISH FETISH, Lisa Pang, Feburary 2022
2021 BELLE Magazine: Project CD, Sept 2021
2019 VOGUE LIVING Australia: House of Fun by Verity Magdalino, Sept/Oct 2019
HOUSE AND GARDENS: How to choose the right artwork for your home, May 2019 2018 ART EDIT MAGAZINE: Showcase Red Scrunch by Anya Pesce, Issue 17, Autumn 2018
ARTICULATE PROJECT SPACE BLOG: A long review, of a short show with lots of artists in it, Isobel Johnston, Jan 2018 2016 ROCHFORD STREET REVIEW. Plastic is the Colour: Lisa Sharp Reviews Fantastik Plastik by Anya Pesce. April 2016 2015 STATE LIBRARY, The Paddock: looking back at the field/editor: Lisa Sharp
NORTHERN DISTRICT TIME, Anya’s Plastics are Fantastic, Nov 2015
2013 ARTS HUB Renting art, the case for going public by Sarah Adams, June 2013 2011 2SER ‘TALKING THROUGH YOUR ARTS’ PROGRAM, May 2011
2010 AUSTRALIAN ART REVIEW Summer Moments Ethereal Landscape, December 2010 PARRAMATTA ADVERTISER Meat and Greet, August 2010
HORIZON, August 2010
HILLS SHIRE TIME Cool room carcasses provide ‘spectacularsight’, August 2010
COLLECTIONS
Works purchased by National and International private collections
Harvey Galleries was founded by the Harvey family in 1994 with an eye to establish a dynamic and inclusive contemporary art space on the North Shore of Sydney. For almost three decades we have expanded our reach to over three gallery locations and an ever expanding stable of the best artists Australia has to offer.
Harvey Galleries acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands upon which our galleries stand. The Guringai people (Seaforth), the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation (Sydney), and the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation (Melbourne).
We pay our respect to Elders past and present.
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