Anthony Priddle’s Once, Upon a Canvas Wall is a quirky and eloquent exhibition that hit the Sheffer Gallery in Darlinghurst last week. 28 intricately painted pieces line the walls of this inner city gallery, each seeming to depict their own unique narrative upon the backdrop of the pattern of a beautifully pressed wall that surrounds Priddle’s workspace.
Evocative of landscape paintings, Priddle’s canvases manage to incorporate an exceptionally ephemeral quality to them, with the concept of time a heavily featured theme. Although somewhat figurative, the fluidity of his strokes gives the paint a liquid quality that makes it feel as though it could flow right off the edge of the canvas at any point.
Once, Upon a Canvas Wall is a playful exhibition that thrives with its quirky narratives and meticulous execution. Working around Sydney’s urban fringes, Priddle found inspiration within the pressed patterns on the metal sheeting of a strappers cottage. Although the narratives within the work seem to hold political undercurrent, Priddle is undisturbed by the expectations and stringent demands of the visual art scene. Priddle focuses his work on embracing a personal interaction with art, rather than engaging with the ‘fashionable’.
One of the refreshing things about his work, is that it refrains from telling audience what to think. Simultaneously, however, it offers plenty of figurative cues and narrational elements that ensure the viewer is never left bemused.
“In part at least, this series is also about the act of making art, and about being human,” he says. “Any narratives that the viewer may draw from the images remain, as always, the property of the viewer”.
Once, Upon a Canvas Wall is a body of work that brings something very rare to Sydney’s visual art scene: ubiquitous reach. This is the type of art that does not press judgement upon its audience, or request it in return; it’s the type of art that you’ll want to put up on your wall and show your friends.
“Art should not be exclusive. Visual Art is the language needing neither hearing nor speech.”
It is this attitude, and his attention to the aesthetics of paint itself, that is making it one of the most accessible exhibitions in Sydney this year. Once, Upon a Canvas Wall is now showing at the Sheffer Gallery in Darlington until the 27th of September. It is only a short exhibition, but one that will not disappoint. Gallery Hours: Weds – Sat 11 – 6 pm.