Gary Waldrom "New Works"

Gary Waldom has explored themes of isolation, dream, intuitive responses to relationships, and moreover, a fantasyland of playful and mischievous tricksters: ‘tricky’ because they are not letting us know who and what they are, nor from whence they came. He is a Hawke’s Bay artist, has been painting since he was a child and is primarily self-taught.

Waldrom’s paintings strive to encapsulate childhood on one hand, and the complexity of adulthood on the other. And in the manner of the films of Fellini and Lynch, Waldrom works with the tension between setting and character to maximise the thematic loading of each image / painting.

Parallels with Francis Bacon have often been drawn, but Waldrom goes further than mutilating his figures with blurring and lack of definition. His is a tender approach: and his manipulations of the strange little figures is subtle, resulting in an invigorating tension.

Waldrom’s figures are smiling (or at least smirking). They seem to know something that we don’t, as they look boldly out of the painting with direct and unflinching (maybe slightly teasing) stare. And they block the view of a background that seems to increasingly provide a wide-open space that contrasts dramatically with the detail of the figures, and enhances the sense of their oddness and mysterious isolation.

One of the strengths of Waldrom’s paintings, is the unanswerable questions they pose: about who these characters are, about how much of what is painted comes from the artist’s experience / life, and why his male characters are clothed, whilst more often than not his female characters are not…This leads to an assumption that there is some quiet personal agenda, or secret narrative. But it is the very open applications of the themes, and the unique and quirky visual appeal of Waldrom’s work that keeps one fascinated.

Gary Waldrom was born 1953 in Waipawa Hawke’s Bay. He has had no formal art training, which has assisted the development of his unique style. He has been a finalist in various significant art competitions since the 1970’s: including the Bensen & Hedges Art Award (1978), Winner –Eastern & Central Trust Bank Art prize (1981), Merit prize – Montana Lindauer Art Award (1986). He has had numerous and regular solo exhibitions throughout the country, and has featured in documentaries and radio shows.

Gary Waldrom "New Works" exhbiition opens on Saturday May 9th from 10am until 4pm at Milford Galleries Dunedin.

Event listed by Milford Galleries

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