Luke Rabl
PINK SCAPES Latitude Longitude
27 July - 14 August 2022
G3 / G4
Opening Night
Friday 29 July | 6pm – 8pm
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Completed during Melbourne’s long and difficult lockdowns, during times of darkness and seclusion, this series of works speaks of the artist’s yearning to travel and connect with Australia’s vibrant and expansive landscapes full of colour, light and life.
Luke Rabl’s art invites you on a journey through the miraculous Pink Lakes of Australia, bringing the immersive colours of these unique landscapes to life through a bird’s eye perspective. His work strives to evoke the senses, with a strong emphasis on the tactile, engaging physically with nature’s materials – sand, clay and ash - to recreate and connect with a landscape that invigorates my mind and soul.
The artworks take the viewer on a journey, a road trip through immersive and playful landscapes of neapolitan colour – shocking and unreal and yet created by nature. Luke finds constant inspiration in visualisation and dreamscapes and in the topography of nature’s forms, all of which invite a sense of wonder and disbelief.
The bold colours in these works represent optimism and hope for future travel, while the use of earth pigments, ash and sand aim to emulate and represent the landscapes of my imagination. Resin, delicately overlayed over the textural layers of landscape, as if preserved in time, reminds viewers of the preciousness and fragility of our environments and humans alike.
Artist Bio
“As a child, I was fortunate to experience art in all its diverse forms. My artist parent’s grounding within the ‘Angry Penguins’ movement and openness to experiments in arts and culture fed my early creative curiosity. Artists such as Fred Williams, Arthur Boyd, Anselm Kiefer and Freddie Timms inspired and challenged me with their rich and evocative palettes and new ways of representing their surrounds.
‘Stonehenge’ (1989), one of my earliest works, was a forensic exploration of ‘Art Brut’, a painting style combining ash, coal dust, sand and paint invented by artist Jean Dubuffet and notably employed in his work ‘Dhôtel nuancé d'abricot.
The combination of earth, ash and sand alongside various paint mediums forms the bridge to my previous career in landscape design, with nature providing the raw materials to express a new way of seeing the world and telling its stories.”
Luke’s recent works explore the unique colour palettes and textural qualities in the Australian landscape, capturing the surreal Neapolitan colours and textures of Australia’s salt lakes. Exhibited at Hawthorn Gallery, Brunswick Street Gallery.
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)
