Benjamin Champion
Charcoal
17 August - 4 September 2022
G1
Opening Night
Friday 19 August | 6pm – 8pm
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In Charcoal, Benjamin Champion explores the imagery of bushfire in the Australian landscape, with its connotations of death and devastation. Through sculpture, drawing, and painting, bushfire in a number of phases is represented, from the fire itself through to the aftermath, showing an alternate view of the Australian landscape to the typical, more idealised imagery.
The painting process is one of reworking and layering the painted surface to create a sense of complexity and depth, with sections of the painting continually being worked over and replaced. Black and white are used as the tonal basis with only minor and select use of colour variations and accents. The paintings were made around the time of the Gippsland fires 2019-2020. The inspiration for the work derives from media imagery of bushfires during that time, as well as first hand accounts.
Artist Bio
Benjamin Champion is a Melbourne-based painter. Benjamin first studied painting at Greensborough Tafe under Terri Brooks 1994-1995, which introduced him to abstract art and principles, and some enduring influences such as the Abstract Expressionist movement, then continuing his study at RMIT 1998-2000.
Benjamin lived and worked for a period in Japan and travelled throughout Asia, which he describes as a rich period of inspiration. New influences included suibokuga ink painting and traditional Japanese architecture. Since 2016, the subject of Benjamin’s work has primarily been landscapes. However, in more recent work, there is an increasing focus on the inner world of imagination, memory and dream
Contact
Phone : (03) 9482 3550
mail@redgallery.com.au
Address
157 St Georges Rd
Fitzroy North, Victoria, 3068
Map
How to get here
Tram: route 11
Stop 21 just north of Edinburgh Gardens
Melway ref: 30B12
Parking in nearby streets
Bus: 504 (Reid Street)
