Interested by the fact that the desert covers the majority of the Australian landscape and presents some of the most inhospitable places on earth, curiosity drove Declan O’Doherty to the Simpson Desert in 2003 in hope of discovering more – he was not disappointed. This journey was the beginning of a long fascination driven by the beauty, colour and natural transitions of the desert landscape and Terrestrial is a culmination of O’Doherty’s exploration into the desert environment using memory as the primary tool to capture a strikingly dynamic, emotive response to the Australian landscape.
Whilst focusing on stark, inhospitable desert expanses O’Doherty’s extreme pallet works in direct opposition to the relationship between colour and the natural world. His tonal vocabulary uses colour to evoke feelings of isolation and alienation within the vastness whilst line directs the compositions, deconstructing hills, canyons and monolithic land masses into motifs paralleling a sense of sanctuary within the void.
Terrestrial officially opened last Saturday December 1 and is Declan O’Doherty’s first exhibition with Aeon Arts. An emerging artist O’Doherty left National Art School in 2009 majoring in painting and drawing and has exhibited at Mils Gallery in 2010 and 2011.
Aeon Arts at Syndicate
2 Danks Street,Waterloo
Until December 16, 2012
Ranges, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 45 x 106cm
Courtesy the artist and Aeon Arts
