Warren Salter

BORN  1958 Tasmania

STUDIES
Graphic art and Signmaking

 Artist Statement 2012

This will be my tenth annual exhibition with Trevor Victor Harvey gallery at Seaforth and heralds a decade of consistently successful shows as well as a great working and personal relationship with the Harvey family. It has also been a crucial ten years in shaping myself as an artist. Hence on my tenth anniversary opening on 23rd March I will be sharing a brand new series, indulging in my love of pop and poster art style.

I started thinking about how my style lends to pop art and this exhibition experiments with my interpretation of the genre. I borrowed from my early days in hand lettering, signwriting and graphics and as many older collectors will remember, I have often played with text in my artworks.

However, unlike Warhol and other pop artists I have maintained my tradition of hand painting and have not used any printing technology. I think there is something interesting about recreating the look of printing with hand painting – using traditional methods to emulate less traditional mediums.

Having always had a passion for cars, guitars and motorcycles I was in my element! It has been like revisiting my high school days when I drew cars and motorbikes at night and sold them to fellow students by day.

I’ve also been careful to include icons of my own Australian surf culture, as well as celebrity icons. I think it is interesting to see America and Australia up close and next to each other, as I believe each has had a love affair with the other – Ie Aussie’s love for American celebrities and American’s love for our Aussie beaches.

Despite my splash in the pop art genre I have included my contemporary flower portraits in the exhibition. As a collection my popular style next to my pop art creates a visually impacting show. It’s colourful, it’s bold and as always with my work – It’s all a bit of fun!

Background

Warren remembers drawing and painting constantly from as early as four years of age. Born in the small rural town of Smithton in Tasmania, he had an immediate talent for art and  found his  school days and nights filled with drawing and painting cars and motorbikes and selling them to fellow students for 50c each  progressing on to painting landscapes for their parents on cardboard and masonite.

At college he was encouraged by renowned artist Geoff Dyer who would take selected students to Interstate National Galleries to view artists like Picasso, Van Gough, Roberts and Streeton, who all had a big influence on Warren’s artistic development.

After 25 years in the graphic art and signmaking industry, Warren realised his real love was painting and eventually became a full time artist.

‘An awareness of natures strong presence is a very real connection to a higher mind for me, I’m drawn to trees,grasses and flowers and their structures as if they were relatives of mine, indeed it is a relatedness I can only express on canvas.  Music is the flip side of art for me too, It feels perfectly natural when I complete a work to jump on the guitar out of joy and just improvise and express, and one will feed the other, the two forms perfectly compliment each other in my world.

After ten years of solid exhibiting with up to four and five shows nationally per year with the collaboration of Trevor Harvey,  Warren developed a diverse range of styles on large canvases including still life, figurative, contemporary, abstract and an unmistakable floral style like no other. A recent trip to Europe visiting several countries has broadened his enthusiasm for the natural in the creation of his latest exhibition at Trevor Victor Harvey gallery with an emphasis on the personalities of trees and how they beautifully exemplify the circular journey of life, death and rebirth.

EXHIBITIONS

2012
Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery, Seaforth, NSW, Australia

2011
Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery, Seaforth, NSW, Australia

2010
Gallery one  Gold coast Qld.
Manyung Gallery Mt.Eliza Vic, “Australian Natives”
South Yarra Arthouse  figurative group show

2009
Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery, Seaforth, NSW, Australia
Red Hill Gallery, Brisbane Queensland
Glenferrie Rd Contemporary Art, Malvern Victoria

2008
Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery, Seaforth, NSW, Australia, “Come Dance”
The Cooper Gallery, Noosa Heads, Q’ld Australia, “Luminality”
Corporate Art, Gold Coast, Q’ld Australia ” Recent works
Linton and Kay Perth Western Australia. ‘Essence
‘Art Brisbane Brisbane exhibition & convention centre Southbank

2007
Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery, Seaforth, NSW, Australia, “Summer Days”
ART Melbourne, Melbourne Australia
Manyung Gallery, Melbourne Australia
Linton Kay contemporary  Gallery, Perth Australia “Mystery of the dance

2006
Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery, Seaforth, NSW, Australia, “Summer Suite”
Cooper Beachside Gallery, Noosa Qld Australia, “Magic Playground”
ART Melbourne, Melbourne Australia
Manyung Gallery, Melbourne Australia
ART Sydney, Sydney Australia

2005
Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery, Seaforth, NSW, Australia ,”Miscellany”
Gullotti Galleries, Perth WA Australia,”Inner Visions”
Lynne Wilton Gallery, Melbourne Australia

2004
Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery, Seaforth, NSW, Australia
Beachside Gallery, Noosa Qld Australia
Fox Studios, Sydney Australia
Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne Australia
Gullotti Galleries, Perth WA Australia “Summer Breeze”

2003
Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery, Seaforth, NSW, Australia, “Shine”
Fox Studios, Sydney Australia
Gullotti Galleries, Perth WA Australia
Beachside Gallery, Noosa Qld Australia “Inner child
New York Art Expo  Manhattan, New York USA

2002
Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery, Seaforth, NSW, Australia
Manyung Gallery, Melbourne Australia

2000
Design Askew, Brisbane Australia
Corporate Art Centre, Gold Coast Australia

PUBLISHING

2004 A TULIP’S DREAM (original) printed poster by GRAND IMAGE New York
LOVES ME, LOVES ME NOT (original) printed poster by GRAND IMAGE New York
FRAGRANT FRANGI (original) printed poster by GRAND IMAGE New York
2003 SELECTED CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS OF AUSTRALIA by Michael Berry Australia
Images; ‘Roses are red Daddy’, ‘God’s Gift’ and ‘Arums’