IAN GREIG Exhibition

In February, Arthouse Gallery will be presenting a new series of paintings by Sydney-based artist Ian Greig. 

Inspired by the visual experience of water, Greig says that “the surface of a pond is analogous with painting, presenting an interplay of inverted perspectives, ambiguous depth, shifting spatial illusions and transient echoes and traces of a reflected reality”.

Whilst the paintings draw upon the natural environment, they are not rooted in the exploration of an outward material landscape. Greig brushes upon a metaphysical world beyond what can be measured or observed through an introspective examination of a state which exists outside corporeal physicality.

He explained, “this exhibition is an adventure into this ephemeral realm in paintings that span both the figurative and the abstract.”

A soothing fluidity is created through the bleeding rich colours and vibrant tones of the paintings, which seemingly seep into each other, generating a sense of calmness which captures the delicate tangle of light and shadows.

“I activate the surface of the paintings via a combination of glazes and more opaque layers, which allows the previous layers to maintain a presence, thus achieving an appearance of movement and instability that enhances the feeling of flux and transience,” said Greig.

Echoing the refractions and ripples upon creeks and ponds, the pensive and trancelike sensation that is produced by Greig’s work, looks towards an abstract subterranean and subconscious reality.

Grieg explained that the paintings probe “metaphysical depths that, at times, have a cosmological dimension – an awareness of the presence of the infinitely large and the infinitely small intertwined.”

This kaleidoscopic experience touches upon the budding realisation of a realm which is elusive and intangible, yet suspended vividly in a physical visual form. (SH)

Until Feb 20. Arthouse Gallery, 66 McLachlan Avenue, Rushcutters Bay. Info: arthousegallery.com.au

BY SHON HO