Brendon Leung - Master's Degree Presentation

Trish Clark Gallery is very pleased to support exceptional emerging artist, Brendon Leung, in his final Master’s Degree presentation. Having included Leung, while still a student, in two group exhibitions in 2018, his current work in this final degree year confirms the gallery’s belief that Leung is an exceptional young artist.

While the paintings appear pared back, they might be composed of hundreds of layers, utilising found materials as their support and unconventional materials in their making, including tea and coffee. Leung concentrates on ideas of imperfection and impermanence, drawing out the atmospheric qualities of his materials to deliver potently affecting contemplative paintings.

Born in Auckland in 1994, of Chinese/Malaysian background and raised in a Chinese/Malaysian household where both parents’ livelihoods were in cooking, Leung embraces this cultural hybridity, amplified by living in a New Zealand-inflected western society. He grasps the cultural legacies of Eastern aesthetics, lifestyle and philosophies that influence his art and their connections with his own creative process, appearing to effortlessly and unselfconsciously channel ancient approaches and knowledge into his contemporary exploration of the mediums of painting.

Eastern philosophical ideas readily embrace correlations with abstraction, the artist seeking to reference nature, space and the human condition. He says, “I’ve come to understand my practice is a literal immersion in the process of impermanence, creating paintings is like chanting a mantra, to tune myself in to what is important and meaningful. Having influences from both east and west has given me insight into something more profound, something that connects us all, that is our humanity.”