NEW YORK, N.Y.- Emerging Australian artist and underwater explorer BJ Price's World Premiere 'High in the Depths' Exhibition will be held at the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in Chelsea New York from Sep 2 – Sep 27 2011.

BJ’s striking abstract paintings have been directly inspired from a myriad of experiences whilst diving and exploring the Great Barrier Reef. Relating to and recreating with its inhabitants his unique connection with the Reef manifests itself through 'Anthropomorphic Abstract' interpretation, realised in vivid colour and distinctive form; a reflective dialogue of intimacy.

The human characteristics BJ assigns to the Reef and it’s creatures [he says] have been there forever, ”it’s just that no-one sees beyond the obvious. Most people see the beauty and complexity of the ecosystem. What I see adds another entirely different dimension to this natural wonder”.

BJ’s ‘High in the Depths’ New York Collection of five large oils on canvas is defined by stunning imagery with great artistic narrative strength and contemporary philosophical relevance. With the Great Barrier Reef acting as his very muse, this explorer of the tropical depths invites us to accompany him into the turquoise waters where he reveals a never before imagined relationship between humankind and their marine forebears.

The story of BJ’s amazing artistic epiphany, as he dived on the Great Barrier Reef some two years ago, provides an intriguing background into the motivation of this exceptionally talented self-taught artist. Upon returning from his diving trip, BJ built a studio and picked up a brush for the first time in his life. Two years later, he has finally emerged to show the world for the first time, his masterful interpretative body of work. Five figure independent valuations of his works have further fuelled the substantial buzz around this unorthodox talent.

Amsterdam Whitney Curator Ms Ruthie Tucker says of BJ’s work “Intensely utilising colour to convey an emotional state, rather than physical vistas, Mr Price expresses a world without borders in an abstract modality with ideologies resonating in a vociferous rhythm. As he transfers his impressions of the naturalistic world onto his non-objective canvas in a transcendental, symbolic narrative manner, the viewer emotionally embarks upon a spiritual and aesthetic experience, and enthralled enters the pictorial kingdom of B.J. Price.”

“The Reef has lessons for us all” declares the artist, “the same oceans from which our ancestors emerged millennia ago, we now return to, to seek the future. My fervent hope is that people will view each artwork, as a type of reef related Rosetta Stone, through which we of the terrestrial world can begin to fathom the profound simplicity that resides there and it’s very real relevance to the everyday lives we lead”.

BJ Price will be attending the New York Group Exhibition and is looking forward to gauging New Yorks’ reaction to his‘High in the Depths’ Collection. “What viewers will be experiencing for the first time is a language hitherto unheard, through visions hitherto unimagined. What lessons we can discern and benefit from, only time and this art will reveal.”