EARS

Daniel O’Toole, better known to most as Ears, is an interesting artist. For the last few years Ears has made a name for himself as a street artist, exhibiting in pubs, at live art shows, and through commissioned murals around Sydney. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, you’ve probably seen his stuff – at Sappho Books, Single Origin, The Record Store in Surry Hills, or at Newtown markets being peddled by the man himself. His style reflects this street background, melding with an art school education to form a complex play between the graphic focus of a street artist and a more formal realism that belies his anti-institutional bio. Recently, Ears has been making the often rocky transition from the streets to the studio, and making it look easy, opening his latest solo show The Grid at Harrison Galleries in Paddington last Saturday. The show is dominated by large canvases, populated by Ears’ iconic male heads, looking characteristically overwhelmed, distant or pleading as their detailed and proficiently rendered eyes state out from looser, deconstructed faces and sparse blocked backgrounds. The Grid is a show that reflects Ears’ growing maturity as an artist. Confident, emotive, and beautifully executed, the works still manage to retain the fluidity, movement and playfulness of the street works, but with a new edge. As an artist that always had an appealing aesthetic and a strong sense of style, it’s rewarding to see him starting to come full circle with this show.

Until Jul 13, Harrison Galleries, 294 Glenmore Rd, Paddington, 9380 7100, harrisongalleries.com.au