Five (Metropolis) Painting

Date of Birth: 1985 Birth Place: Auckland, New Zealand Currently living in: Sydney, Australia Education: Bachelor of Design degree at UNITEC majoring in Painting. Completed in 2007. I’m a full time Sydney based New Zealand artist. Figurative paintings have been my main focus the past 10 years. However in late 2017 I started an abstract series which I work on concurrently alongside the figurative peoplescapes. This has kept things interesting for me in the studio, and I have since exhibited the Abstract series at TOAF LA 2018, TOAF SYD 2019, and a solo show Dystopia at DePlume Gallery East Hollywood, LA 2019. Although I have tried to abandon recognizable forms and go more into pure abstraction, there still is a sense of figurative and landscape elements coming out of the abstract shapes and brush marks. In a way, a lot of the work has become a form of surrealist landscape. I see them as a representation of the uncertainty of modern times, a portrait of current or future societies. My recent series of abstracts have moved away from the seascape motif, and has taken up elements of a cityscape. While certain periods of Willem De Kooning’s work remains a big influence on my style, I also draw inspiration from artists such as Georg Baselitz and Joan Mitchell, with their loose brush work and paint application. Joe Bradley and Cecily Brown, have also been artists I’ve taken influence from.