Title

Garry Pumfrey: New works.

Venues

Flinders Lane Gallery (8 September 2009 – 26 September 2009)

Date

(2009)

Summary

Single-artist exhibition. Located: Australia (VIC). Paintings

Country of context

Australia

Abstract

The works for this, Pumfrey's second solo exhibition in Melbourne, have evolved through a series of exploratory journeys through backstreets and along train tracks in search of that right composition and to observe the changing effects of light on a subject. “Perth’s light has a really bleaching effect that has featured significantly in my previous works. Here I wanted to capture something of the cooler climate, to see how well I could represent wintery cloud or midnight fog.”

As vignettes of an overlooked landscape Pumfrey’s paintings offer both an opportunity to observe Melbourne with fresh eyes and to acknowledge a scene that may soon succumb to the expanding boundaries of inner city development. [Gallery media, 2009].

Gary Pumfrey employs high realism to document the urban landscapes of Western Australia. Playing close attention to these shifting environments and the changes that have occurred there as a result of the economic and resource boom, Pumfreys’ works serve to comment on the nature of both contemporary culture and consumerism. His trademark images of chaotic advertising graphics and the disappearing icon of the corner store have recently evolved to include depictions of somber corporate branding as found within the modern urbanscape.

His current body of work Terraform is unmistakably ‘Perth’, yet they hold a broader thematic relevance - how the built environment serves to reveal our culture’s dilemmas and desires. Pumfrey admits that immerging himself in these sites has becomes something of an obsession as he documents the same location through as series of ongoing study paintings. [Gallery media, 2009]