Brendan McGorry: Works on Paper

Uxbridge Creative Centre is proud to present Brendan McGorry’s latest exhibition Works on paper, featuring a variety of works – from life drawing to watercolours – that have never before been on public display.

The exhibition, part of McGorry’s prize for winning Estuary Artworks 2010, moves away from his large-scale paintings and installations and focuses on the drawing skills he honed during the NY Studio School’s drawing marathon based in Orvieto, Umbria. Participants travelled to chapels filled with Italian Renaissance frescoes and spent 12 hours a day drawing from life with charcoal over the 14-day period.

As a consequence, many of the drawings included in Works on Paper are directly influenced by this life-changing experience. Studio Offering is a twist on the frescoes by Giotto in Padua’s Scrovegni Chapel. In one of the frescoes the donor of the chapel, Enrico degli Scrovegni, is pictured gifting a miniature version of the chapel on his shoulder to Jesus. McGorry replicates this iconic scene, but instead of a chapel it is McGorry’s studio in inner-city Auckland, and rather than the chapel’s donor it is the artist himself.

These works are to be considered resolved pieces in their own right, rather than preparatory sketches for larger, painted works. The artist says, “I see the drawings as both finished work and working drawing.” For further information about McGorry’s artistic achievements please visit his website www.brendanmcgorry.com.

Brendan McGorry, an 11-time Wallace Art Award finalist, has an impressive exhibition history, more recently exhibiting an installation at the 2011 NZ Sculpture on the Shore and will be participating in White Night for the Auckland Arts Festival.

McGorry will be presenting an artist talk as part of the Works on Paper exhibition on Thursday 24th March at 2pm in the Malcolm Smith Gallery at Uxbridge.

All works on display will be for sale.

Event listed by Melissa Elliott

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