Peter Sharp presents Eucalypt

Welcoming Peter Sharp’s latest solo exhibition, join Liverpool Street Gallery at the opening Thursday 9 October, for a meditative enquiry into nature and its colourful constructions.

Titled Eucalypt, the exhibition draws from Sharp’s explorations within the natural environment, examining both the micro and macrocosm of life in nature. His practice is inspired by his surroundings on the coast in the southern suburbs of Sydney, and his yearly trips to the arid desert of Fowler’s Gap for the past two decades.

Working across all forms of media; paintings, sculptures and works on paper, Sharp’s works respond to these two extreme environments- desert and sea.

The abstract forms, gestural lines and deep colours speak of a lyrical interpretation of his experience in the landscape, as Sharp states, “I’m not interested in a literal translation but a poetic moment that speaks of things in nature. I am interested in the conversation between Western and Indigenous landscape painting.”

Eucalypt explores the sustained relationship that Sharp holds with the places that feature in his work (coast, bush or desert). Drawing influence from Indigenous art that evokes a profounds sense of being immersed in the landscape, Sharp continues this effect in his abstract works. The innate understanding that Indigenous people have with their country – a relationship that cannot be separated from their experience of it – is of central importance to Sharp.

Art critic Andrew Frost drew attention to Sharp’s development of an artistic language to communicate his surroundings, stating, “Sharp is an artist who is always examining and thinking through his approach, refining his techniques and reflecting on the nature of the act of translation that occurs when an artist attempts to record their experience on canvas.”

Underlying Sharp’s work is desire to explore and evoke an artistic understanding, as Sharp sums up, “I fall in love with a subject, and then make work that is an exploration of the ‘thing’ and its place in the world. It’s about making sense of things.”

EXHIBITION
Eucalypt
Liverpool Street Gallery
4 – 30 October 2014
Opening 6-8pm, 9 October

Drawing Out
Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial
AGNSW
21 November 2014 – 25 January 2015

Images courtesy the artist and Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney