DAMIAN PAUL HARRIS

This exhibition at Vientiane Gallery, the first solo show by Tasmanian-

born, Sydney-based artist Damian Harris, focuses on the ways in which

water refracts light, reflects beauty and distorts realism. His earlier

expressionistic, graffiti-inspired canvases have made a stylistic shift

towards images of greater realism, although these are often distorted

by shimmering reflections and water-ripples. The light flashes off the

surface of lakes, streams and oceans. Some of his canvases are

calmly contemplative, while others are characterized by lush, sinuous

line-work.

Harris covers the whole surface of each canvas with detail, sometimes

recalling eastern calligraphy, or what the artist calls “my experiments

with impressionism.” Water is shown as a constantly changing surface,

variously depicting reflections of a wooden pier in Queensland, an

overhanging tree in Sydney’s Centennial park, the rippling effects

caused by a platypus coming up for air in a Tasmanian stream, the

surge of an ocean swell, or the hedonism of a friend swimming

underwater in a pool on a summer’s weekend.

“These paintings are not so much about place, but about looking at

water, zooming in on the abstract surface and reflections,” says Harris.

“In contemporary art, landscape is not boring, it’s not banal. But

sometimes it’s a technical struggle, to correctly paint the sense of flow.

I want to challenge the conservative attitude of traditional landscape

painting. I paint using images taken with a digital camera, helping me

to discover details that might not be immediately obvious to the naked

eye. When water is moving, you don’t grasp many of its intricacies and

shapes. So, to get my priorities right, I have to stop, stand back, and

look at nature. Maybe it’s a reaction to the information age, to try to

find something exceptional in water, an ordinary, basic element.”

For the past few years, Harris has concentrated on landscapes and

portraits, with many paintings of his friends from Australia’s acting and

musical worlds, including Chrissie Amphlett, Nicholas Eadie, John

Howard (the actor, not the ex-P.M.), Garry Scale, Carol Skinner and

Oscar-nominated Jacki Weaver, and his series of portraits of the Dalai

Lama as a small boy, standing uncertainly in oversized, warm clothes.

But Harris simultaneously creates works in different techniques and

styles, in several artistic languages. His primitive, expressionistic

canvases, peopled by stick-figures and graffiti-style slogans are his

comment on urban life and the human condition. He takes on a different

discipline in his textual pieces, a sort of “anti-branding” composed of

altered business logos, typography and cryptic social phrases – Home

A Loan, Mess Age, Passive Fist, Sleepworking.

“Both politically and economically, some things are wrong, right now,”

says Harris. “These small phrases and new words are my mini-protests

on canvas”.

Harris’s Waterworks have a more subtle conceptual edge. “I also look at

the visual impact beyond the natural representation of water. The way it

suggests other things than what it really is, like when you look at clouds

and see the shapes of animals or other objects. Or all the bizarre

shapes made by the reflections of overhanging tree-branches on a late

afternoon, with hardly any wind, and a surface like silk.”

Mixing hard-edge with soft focus, Damian Harris paints the connection

between two ways of looking, incorporating both realism and

abstraction, capturing the flatness of water as being a surface full of

movement and vitality.

Jonathan Turner

p r esen ted by Jona than Tur ner MED IA RELEASE

Born 1964 in Hobart, Tasmania. Lives and

works in Sydney.

Education Tasmanian School of Art - Bachelor

of Fine Art 1985-87

Studio residency Gasworks, Albert Park,

Melbourne 1990-91

Worked in the animation industry 1993-2001,

with advertisements created for KFC, Bodalla,

Kelloggs, Streets Ice-cream, CocaCola,

Clearasil, Sanitarium, Claratyne and Arnotts;

children’s TV series including Crocadoo,

Bananas in Pyjamas, Petals, Lucky Lydia and

Mr Baby; the movie All Dogs go to Heaven

(part 2): the music video Gorillas, and the

independent project Tod and Tom.

www.damianpaulharris.com

EXHIBITION OPENING

Friday, March 9, 2012

5.30 pm to 7.30 pm

Exhibition runs through

April 7, 2012

Exhibitions

Solo show

2012 Waterworks - Vientiane, Sydney

Group shows

2011 Flood Relief – Blackwattle Café,

Glebe, Sydney

2009 Reflections of Australia - Hon-

grun Huaxia Hotel, Zhengzhou, Henan

Province, China

2006 The Dunlop Ping-Pong Project -

Blank Space Gallery, Sydney

2005 Guttersnipe Project - Kings Cross

Library, Sydney

1996 Group Show – Tap Gallery, Sydney

1987 Drawing - Centre for the Arts,

Hobart, Tasmania

Vientiane

Shop 1A, 1-11 Oxford Street, Paddington

(corner South Dowling Street and Oxford

Street, opposite the Beauchamp Hotel)

Vientiane opening hours:

Wed-Fri 12pm-3pm,

Mon-Sat 6.30pm-9.30 pm.

Exhibition runs through April 7

Vientiane - Experience Lao cuisine

www.bamboostickyrice.com

Facebook: Vientiane Gallery/Restaurant

Tel: 02 93807414

Flyer design by Jenny McClatchey: jen_mcclatchey@hotmail.com

BANGALOW 1 (2009) acrylic on canvas, 122 x 92 cm