Turner Galleries present an exhibition of new work by leading Perth figurative artist, John Cullinane.
This exhibition of small to medium scale paintings will be shown in Turner Galleries' Engine Room 2. Cullinane's paintings continue in a semi-realist vein, drawing on over 30 years of his artist sketchbooks as a resource. These sketchbooks reveal inspiration and varied interests in subjects ranging from art history, philosophy, and Greek mythology to contemporary society and the everyday. He often then processes these different ideas into a single canvas.
He notes that "This self referential approach allows for an exploration of the formal values of fine art, and at the same time using so called 'formal flaws' by maintaining a binary subjective / objective freedom in subject matter that comes from a multitude of sources including mythology, sociology, philosophy and my own personal view as an observer".
Cullinane's oil paintings continue to develop his painterly techniques from previous exhibitions, in particular his current fascination with restructuring the picture plane of his paintings.
He stated, "This exhibition continues from my last show at Turner Galleries in 2015, where I was exploring what I call "cut ups" (using geometric shapes cut from coloured paper to use as stencils in paintings of various themes)." This process uses ancient mathematical problem solving techniques involving dissection and reconstruction, and the organisation of elements within sets, called combinatorics. The resulting paintings have a splintered, or cubist, appearing geometric backgrounds, that both flatten and warp the picture plane. I forgot my umbrella (2016) is a particularly fine example of this technique, along with it referencing many different themes; art historical, philosophical and theatrical.
Theatrical themes have quite a presence in this exhibition, in paintings such as Interval and Waiting for Godot. Cullinane also has a wry sense of humour, as revealed in Brokers, a small painting of two bulls with a pyramid in the background, and That way, a painting of a sculptural hand with a pointing finger.
John Cullinane has been exhibiting regularly for 30 years, this is his 18th solo exhibition, and his paintings can be found in many important local and interstate public collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Parliament House Canberra, Murdoch University, University of WA, Curtin University, Bankwest, Edith Cowan University, Royal Perth Hospital, North Metropolitan TAFE and several local council collections. Private collectors of renown have also collected his work, such as Kerry Stokes, Barry Humphries and Carrillo Gantner. His exhibition will be available to view online from 3 March.
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- TURNER GALLERIES | showcasing contemporary art
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