Fred Fowler’s exhibition, Home / Visitors, features new paintings by the Melbourne based artist in his first solo presentation in Queensland.
His distinctive paintings are landscapes – physical, cultural or psychological – that expose the hidden and imaginary, described as wormholes or portals to alternative realities. He uses abstraction to eliminate background noise and convey the impact of a complex past on the Australian landscape.
A keen observer of the world and in particular signs, maps and symbols, the title Home / Visitors arose from the artist seeing a sports score tally sign with those words, but absent of any scores, conjuring a metaphor for the exhibition.
“For this forthcoming series, I’ve been using Google Maps to study areas in WA, and also places that are harder to access in person such as mines, detention centres and remote communities. I’m looking for sites of significance in relation to the idea of the Australian landscape, both physically and culturally. My current work is based loosely around the idea of landscape painting, but landscapes that are disconnected from traditional signifiers like horizon lines or perspective. Rather they can be read more like aerial maps full of symbols.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Fowler has been exhibiting regularly in solo and group exhibitions over the last decade and graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2012. He has undertaken several residencies, including the TWIG regional art residency in Swan Hill, Victoria (2014), the Sculptors in Schools Residency for the Lorne Sculpture Biennale, Victoria (2014), and the Artist in Residence in Clayarch Gimhae Museum, South Korea (2015). He has created murals and public artworks in Barcelona, Berlin, Paris, Lyon and New York. His work has been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, and private collections in Australia and overseas.
Image: Fred Fowler An arc of songbrids 2018 oil paint, oil stick and gold leaf on wood panel 90.0 x 80.0 cm
