garry pumfrey

terraform II

16 may - 14 june 2008

• press release
• ric spencer, the night prowler the west australian, 30 may 2008

It has been a long five years since Garry Pumfrey’s last solo exhibition in Perth. During that time he has had success at the Melbourne Art Fair, a sell-out show in Melbourne & an exhibition in Sydney last year at the University of Sydney.

Garry is a young realist painter whose work over the past ten years has critiqued the iconography of consumerism. Early paintings depicted crushed soft drink cans and cigarette packaging, recording society’s waste on a heroic scale. These paintings were followed by his hugely successful series of ‘deli’ paintings, in which he recorded the disappearing icon that is the corner shop and the local delicatessen.

Since 2007 Garry has moved on to record another change in the Perth landscape, a change that is the result of the West Australian resource boom. He considers these new paintings to be still influenced by his interest in how consumerism and economic prosperity changes our suburbs. He is looking at the same theme, but from a different perspective. Vast tracks of wetlands, bushlands and old housing are being demolished to solve the residential housing crisis sweeping Perth. In Burswood, from skeletal beginnings, massive multi-levelled apartment buildings have sprung up, and Garry has marked their progress with a series of paintings. To Garry, these imposing facades already have the look of tomorrow’s slums.

Our growing need for power is depicted in paintings of Kwinana, the brutal industrial facades softened and romanticised by the night lighting. Paintings of the Welshpool grain facility are also included in this exhibition, as is the more inner city Hanson concrete and aggregate supply depot. Garry selects locations for their symbolism and painting potential, often recording the same site during the day and night. Several sites are selected for their proximity to his home, so that he can survey them on a daily basis, appreciating building sites for their dynamic compositions and rapid change.

Garry is one of the few local artists actively recording the changing skyline of Perth, and the impact of the growing population on our suburbs. Yet he feels excluded from Perth’s economic prosperity and thinks of himself as an observer on the sidelines.

Garry studied art and design at the Claremont School of Art, before studying for a further twelve months at Edith Cowan University in 1999. Terraform II is his sixth solo exhibition and he has participated in several group shows and art awards. He won an award in the 2004 Town of Vincent Art Award, won the Peoples Choice Award at the City of Joondalup Invitational Art Award in 2004 and has taken out first prize twice at the Gascoyne Biennale and once at the Kalgoorlie Boulder Art Exhibition. He was awarded ArtsWA funding for his Melbourne and Sydney exhibitions, and has work in several public collections, including Murdoch University, Edith Cowan University and the Town of Vincent.