Nick, Scott & Jock brings together the work of three artists exploring divergent materials through new approaches. Pen on paper, ceramics and abstract painting are well-traversed but Nick, Scott and Jock offer new takes on each, upturning conventions of form and technique.
The show is an opportunity to view Nick Santoro’s drawings separate from his paintings. These drawings have generally been initiated at a restaurant table or work desk rather than in the studio. Images are revisited and expanded on as an extended scrawl that brings Santoro’s universe of characters into black and white clarity. The landscape quality of his paintings fall away, replaced by densely textured psychological spaces inhabited by spectral pop entities and local identities.
This exhibition marks Scott Duncan’s debut at the Egg & Dart. With a broad approach to ceramics, these are composite objects of real technical complexity. Playful in construction and ambiguous in function, the works feel egalitarian and open-ended. Assemblage performs as collage and references from modernity and classicism fuse together through the firing process. Aesthetic histories adhere and then peel off. It’s an invitation to consider the iteration of these forms through time or to just enjoy the convergence of allusions.
Henry Jock Walker merges abstraction with unexpected materials. Collected used wetsuits are cut, arranged and stitched together to act as a memorial of time spent in the ocean. The detailed crafting of these works tests the rigid masculinity seen historically in both abstract painting and surf culture. With irreverence and mobility, Jock continues his overall challenge to expected representations in art, commerce and sport.
- Melody Willis
