Simon Degroot explores abstract forms in relation to a contemporary context of image sharing and exchange in Familiar Beyond Recognition. This collection of works makes use of pre-existing visual elements from diverse sources such as art history, technology, and the built environment. The exhibition investigates varying degrees of viewer recognition of these reused visual elements as they are reformed in the context of new paintings, collages, digital imagery and murals. Degroot considers how translation, as process and concept, can be a useful model to interrogate how abstract forms are re-employed in contemporary abstraction, how they are recognised, and why this is important to understanding contemporary abstraction and a broader visual culture based in image exchange and circulation. This exhibition forms part of Degroot’s PhD submission for examination at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University.
Opening Event: Saturday, 18 March, 5pm–7pm at Spiro Grace Art Rooms, 255 Gregory Tce Spring Hill
Artist Talk: Saturday, 25 March, 2pm-4pm at Webb Gallery, QCA
Venue: WEBB Gallery, QCA, 226 Grey Street, South Bank and Spiro Grace Art Rooms, 255 Gregory Tce, Spring Hill
Gallery Hours: 10 am – 4 pm, Tuesday to Saturday
Image: Simon Degroot, White and Blue Flat Lay 2017, oil on canvas, 198 x 137cm
