Stories Behind Large Paintings in Stockroom
Art Forum is proud to present
A number of large works in Art Forum stockroom have not been shown for sometime so I decided to select some for display.
Inland (salt) seas are frozen in luminous reminder of pasts, too old to remember, but not yet forgotten either. Occasionally the waters would remind these seas how it is to be alive and brimming, from Lake Amadeus to Eyre from Torrens to Mungo. It was not a landscape frozen in paint or with possession one could not possess such an immensity. - Mark Elliot Ranken
Lake Eyre is the lowest point in Australia. This expanse of white sea could only be navigated by compass. Lake Amadeus is a huge salt lake in the area of Uluru (Ayers Rock), these lakes are almost always totally dry.
Mark Elliot-Ranken talks about his art:
"This is the language of liberation - a state we all need to obtain to live rather than simply exist.
Painting is an ancient but equally contemporary process, nothing equals it except poetry… it is poetry. I work with the act of picking up a brush and making a mark, time and again I learn a simple lesson; listen to the painting it will tell you what to do. This is the lesson of painting."
Mark completed his PhD from Newcastle University in 2013. He has been working as an artist and arts educator for three decades both within Australia and internationally exploring the impact of travel on artists.
His works follow a path toward non-figuration and reductive aesthetic. As a nomad he carries only essential material possessions, staying light and mobile, so his work is stripped itself down to essentials. This is his travels to the Salt Seas .
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Den Warnjing
Old Brahmin and Young Wife (Jataka Tales)
1996
Mixed media on canvas
150 x 180 cm
Jujaka, a greedy old Brahmin, had a beautiful young wife, Amittada, who was also hardworking. The husbands of the other women in the village held her up as an example of a good industrious wife. One day, in a fit of jealousy, all the village women gathered by the well and beat up the Brahmin's young wife, tearing her clothes. From then on Amitada refused to work hard, and nagged her husband to find some servants. The scenes, especially of the mismatched couple of Jujaka, the old Brahmin, and his nagging young wife Amittada, are avidly portrayed in this painting. The sequeal to this story is the abduction of Buddha’s children by the old Brahmin to be his servants and how Buddha’s children were rescued.
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Den talks about his art:
"My way of life in the countryside since childhood has made me see the way of life of village folks - simple, happy and peaceful. Their beliefs are related to religions, customs and benevolent traditions."
Den Warnjing was born in 1967 in the ancient capital of Ayudhaya, Thailand. Den graduated with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Thai art from the Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts at Silpakorn University.
The uniqueness and charm of Den’s work lie in his ability to convey the simple rural way of life, at the same time incorporating the classic tales of the life of Buddha beautifully and profoundly. The drawings are based on Thai traditions.
Jeremy Sharma
Variations - Yellow Light Achillea Suite 4 (Golden)
2011
oil on canvas
153 x 183 cm
Jeremy Sharma, born in 1977. He was awarded Master of Fine Art in LaSalle-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore in 2006.
Jeremy’s constant obsession is the study of material, colour and space.
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Lindslee
Like Your Style
2016
Acrylic, oil and enamel on canvas
122 x 183 cm
Lindslee’s works take viewers beyond their comfort zone. He challenges viewers’ idea of beauty, and of what is good and bad. Often, he picks up what he sees in his surroundings, all that are mundane and overlooked. These scenes are recomposed in his mind and become his personal attachment.
His works are really urban landscapes.
Lindslee talks about his art:
"I apply how I think, feel and work to my art and mix and extend the capacity of materials to create new forms. I pick up ideas and designs that are not art, but I incorporate them into my art. That is why when I see an image or shape I say ‘Like your Style’ – the title of this painting."
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Marjorie remembers very well the black metal door depicted in this picture. It was painted in a solid shiny black; in another time the same metal door would be painted solid white. Both times, it had different startling effects.
Tran has no fear of colour or shape; he paints whatever that comes to mind in a subconscious manner.
Tran Van Thao talks about his art:
"I find beauty in the unruliness of life and I express my awe of such unpredictability through abstract art.
… And when we open our eyes, we see many things: the sun, objects and people. When we close our eyes, we are disorientated by the shadows of what we have seen."
Tran Van Thao was born in 1961 in Saigon. He graduated from the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Art University. Tran Is one of Vietnam’s foremost abstract painters. His works are in the collection of The National Art Gallery Singapore.
Tran Van Thao
My Black Metal Door
1999
Mixed media on canvas
140 x 120 cm
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Tian Mangzi
Green/yellow with Red Rim
2009
acrylic on canvas
170 x 178 cm
Green is the new planet, and that this should be the ideal planet.
Yellow represents gold and wealth, while red symbolises fire, courage, anger, stormy emotions, love and power.
Tian Mangzi talks about his art:
"Human beings are gradually destroying the environment, the planet is polluted, and the rivers stink with garbage. I feel disappointed by all of these and I have no power to stop it."
‘The reason for painting apples was an impulse to overthrow the accursed world and then to create a new, beautiful, peaceful planet which belongs to everyone.”
Tian Mangzi was born in Shenyang in 1968. He began to paint when he was 12 or 13 years old, in ink and brush technique.
He graduated with a Master’s Fine Arts degree in 1995. Tian Mangzi began still life painting to understand the structure and character of pears, oranges, bananas and other fruits and vegetables. He finally chose apples as his favourite still life painting object because it has characteristics of the Planet Earth - simple and yet complex.
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