Noosa Regional Gallery is excited to kick off the new year with two new exhibitions that focus on local artists of the Sunshine Coast and their relationship with the natural environment.
In an ambitiously scaled installation across the main gallery space, Curator and Noosa Regional Gallery Director Michael Brennan explores a unique perspective of natural Noosa in More Than the Sum of its Parts.
“Like the people who inhabit it, Noosa’s natural environment is richly diverse. From lush subtropical national parks, idyllic beaches, and soaring powder blue skies through to a sweeping river that connects the Hinterland with the Eastern Beaches, these places are often the inspiration for many of the region’s artists,” Brennan said.
In celebration of this significant aspect of Noosa’s identity and the artists who continue to make it the subject of their work, Noosa Regional Gallery has set out to recreate the epic distinctiveness of this prominent environment.
Featuring the work of multiple Sunshine Coast and Gympie artists, the immersive experience that is More Than the Sum of its Parts, results from the ambitiously scaled ensemble of individual artist’s works grouped thematically and chromatically.
Spanning floor to ceiling and across the Gallery’s walls, the expansive salon-style hang results in a grand presentation of a larger local landscape.
Adding to this immersive experience of the natural landscape, is a new solo exhibition by celebrated Sunshine Coast artist Trevor Purvis.
Australian Sienna, like More Than the Sum of its Parts, takes visitors on a journey into the natural world. However, Purvis pushes us deeper.
Ushering the visitor into the landscape’s depths, Purvis identifies the viewer as participant in the exchange rather than simply as onlooker.
Explains Brennan, “A common approach to the long tradition of landscape painting has been to stand back and take it all in. Think Arthur Streeton or even Albert Namatjira; there’s palpable space between us as observers and the sweep of an unencumbered territory. We’ve been conditioned to admire the vistas from afar.”
“Trevor Purvis, by contrast, takes us much closer in. We are part of the landscape he asks us to experience. Its colour, texture and drama encircle us. And even on occasions that his physical stance assumes distance- his gaze interrogates surfaces in detail, wrapping around their forms.”
Australian Sienna embraces a striking, expressive palette. Conveying the life that courses through the natural environment, Purvis asks us to experience the landscape rather than simply celebrate it.
Trevor Purvis: Australian Sienna and More Than the Sum of its Parts runs from 4 February to 5 April 2023.
For more information about the exhibitions including tickets to the official opening event on Friday 3 February, visit noosaregionalgallery.com.au
