The NT Arts Fellowships support artists to further their professional arts practice and careers within the Northern Territory, nationally and internationally. In 2019, Marina Strocchi was awarded the fellowship, allowing her to set up a studio at Trestle Art Space in Brooklyn, New York – a fruitful refuge.
Marina Strocchi, New York Taxi II, 2020, acrylic on paper, 35.5 x 28cm
‘The work that I did while I was in Brooklyn was an immediate response to the environment that I found myself in. This is my usual way of starting a new series and can be tracked in my previous work. The works respond to the built environment that is unique to New York. The sheer mass and density of the buildings, the repetition of shapes, the walls of windows, sometimes reflecting, sometimes receding and always towering over the mere mortals who inhabit them. It is the flipside of the natural environment where nature is the dominant factor,’ says Strocchi.
Marina Strocchi, The Horse, 2019, acrylic on paper, 23 x 30.5cm
‘The buildings seem to have their own characters, the stoops, the brownstones, the skyscrapers, the old apartment block butted up against tiny alleys and cobbled streets. New York’s buildings are an architectural guide to the history of the city,’ continues Strocchi who also spent time upstate in the contrasting natural environment of The Catskills, which included rural settings with barns, fences and animals. Her travels did not end there; ‘I also travelled to Washington, Baltimore, Charlottesville, Philadelphia and Kansas City in pursuit of seeing great collections of art.’
Jan Murphy Gallery
3 to 17 July 2020 (online)
Queensland
