Tolarno Galleries presents "Peter Atkins: Built Form"
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, November 22, 2024


Tolarno Galleries presents "Peter Atkins: Built Form"
Peter Atkins, Sydney Road Project 2024. Bunnings paint sample cards on paper, 38cm x 28cm.



MELBOURNE.- Tolarno Galleries will present Peter Atkins’ new exhibition of paintings, collages and one sculpture, Built Form.

On display in Gallery 2, the works are derived from the Melbourne-based artist’s everyday perambulations through a variety of urban, suburban and industrial environments.

Observing a storefront, factory facade, roofline or roller door, Atkins takes numerous photographs and notes, carefully studying the architecture, decoration and signage.

Then, back in the studio, Atkins reduces the forms of these visual encounters to the fundamentals of colour and line, creating bright, hard-edge abstractions that pulse with vitality.

The exhibition begins with a series of eight acrylic paintings on board, the titles of which reveal the extent of Atkins’ wanderings throughout Melbourne and journeys beyond – Moorabbin, Glen Waverley, Footscray, Coburg.

Gelateria, Brunswick 2024 serves up six vertical stripes alternating between hot pink and dark brown, instantly evoking the flavours of strawberry and chocolate.

Sign, Clifton Hill 2024 presents as a black rectangle with a vertical yellow stripe on either side. Hazard up ahead? Atkins dares you to supply your own message.

Roadhouse, Gundagai 2024 is a horizontal rectangle divided into three sections of pale pink, mid-green and chartreuse. Crucially, the chartreuse section is narrower than the others, lending the painting a subtle rhythmic quality.

“My practice is really a meditation on modernism, in that I’m interested in how abstraction manifests itself in a contemporary urban or landscape environment,” says Atkins.

“I distil what I see down to its quintessential abstract form by deleting text and incidental imagery, but I leave enough information for it to trigger the viewer’s own memories of place,” he says.

Accompanying the paintings is a series of 20 collages, Sydney Road Project 2024, constructed from Bunnings paint sample cards.

“Built Form is a love letter to my adoptive home town of Melbourne, in particular the gloriously manic Sydney Road, an area we’ve lived in now for 25 years,” says Atkins.

“Sydney Road Project relates to the series Welcome to L.A. 2009 and Hume Highway Project 2010, both of which were shown with Tolarno. All the reference forms were harvested by walking along Sydney Road, which eventually becomes the Hume Highway at Campbellfield,” he says.

You may be surprised at how many of the visual sources you recognise from the colours and shapes alone – 7-11, Bank, Chemist Warehouse and (naturally) Bunnings.

Other works in the series claim more esoteric sources of inspiration – Madonna Electric, Fantastic Variety, Ultra Exotic Lounge, Hair 2000.

“I’m trying to make something meaningful out of nothing, those overlooked or invisible aspects of the world around us that are actually quite beautiful if we give them our attention. The humble, throw-away paint store samples I’ve used to construct the works also reflect this magical transformation,” says Atkins.

“It might be the bottom corner of a building that’s been touched up with mismatched tones of paint or an orange tiled wall that’s been repaired with the wrong shade of orange – it all combines to make Sydney Road an overwhelming and continually changing visual experience,” he says.

Completing the exhibition is Carpark Column, Melbourne 2024, a miniature replica of the Y-shaped concrete pillars supporting Peter McIntyre’s architecturally significant 1960s Parkade Carpark, which can be seen – in fact, almost touched – from the windows of Gallery 2.

“The sculpture has been installed on a wall shelf between two windows, where you get a bird’s-eye view straight into Parkade,” says Atkins of the acrylic on salvaged plywood, which is available in an edition of 3.

“I was lucky enough to hear Peter give an amazing, and very honest, talk about his practice as an architect towards the end of 2020, when the top of Parkade had been opened up for socially-distanced cultural events during the pandemic,” recalls Atkins.

“McIntyre’s columns came back to me as I was finishing the painted works for Built Form. Given the wonderful sightline in Gallery 2, I thought a single column would sit perfectly within this body of work,” he says.

“In some ways, its brutal austerity is perhaps a comment on those strange, dislocated and isolating times we all lived through.”










Today's News

August 12, 2024

Collection of Aboriginal art gifted to the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Pangolin London announces an upcoming exhibition by renowned Royal Academician Ann Christopher

Exhibition dedicated to the work of Canadian conceptualist Rodney Graham to open at 303 Gallery

The legacy of Lee Miller this fall at The Image Centre

The most wanted 'girl' in fashion

Nationally-touring exhibition celebrates Ethiopia's vibrant culture and rich artistic legacy

Pace announces the first solo exhibition in the UK of works by Cuban artist Alejandro Piñeiro Bello

LAUNCH Gallery exhibits works by Los Angeles based artist Nancy Ivanhoe

The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art presents a solo exhibition of Ming Smith

Haggerty Museum of Art presents new exhibitions

Last chance to see: Kasmin's exhibition of ceramic sculpture by Julia Isídrez

Simian presents "Nina Canell: Future Mechanism Rag Plus Two Grams"

Sonoma Valley Museum of Art presents a retrospective of the late Oakland-based artist Arthur Monroe

Messums West announces "Tessa Campbell Fraser: Whales"

New construction blocking the view? 'If you can't beat them, join them.

Here's why 'The Matrix' is more relevant than ever

How Hollywood glamour is reviving the endangered Broadway play

80WSE presents "Legacies: Asian American Art Movements in New York City (1969-2001)"

On Netflix, a very British 'Love Is Blind'

Ballroom Marfa announces "Julie Speed: The Suburbs of Eden "

Solo exhibition includes 15 large format tapestries by the Berlin artist Margret Eicher

"Jacqueline Burckhardt: My Commedia dell'Arte" out now

Smithsonian American Art Museum to open "Tuan Andrew Nguyen: The Island"

Tolarno Galleries presents "Peter Atkins: Built Form"

Nicolas Asencios And The Realist Impulse in Tattoo Art

Understanding Fintech: A Deep Dive into the Financial Technology Revolution




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful