David Eastwood
Recent Exhibitions
- 2011
- David Eastwood
One of the more interesting ironies about modernity, specifically in respect to visual art, is that often one of the most accurate indices of a work’s contemporaneity is the degree to which it successfully rearticulates positions and techniques originating in the past. Before the western tradition developed a schema for the naturalistic rendering of objects within space, the elements making up a painting’s narrative – a diadem or a tabletop for example, were depicted singularly as was the area surrounding them. On the basis of the similarities between this process and the way in which Photoshop and other digital imaging programs work by allowing for the isolation from the overall picture space of an object and its immediate environment it is possible to argue that the recent work of David Eastwood has aspects that are both inside and outside their time.
The works of which I write have a strong sense of pattern and heightened optical effect evidencing as much a debt to Bridget Riley as they do to the fabrics and wallpapers of the 1970s. These paintings are characterised by a light source that is generally consistent across their surface working to naturalize and coagulate the disparate elements – a plastic IKEA chair, wallpaper derived from Vermeer or the carpet from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining within the apertureless and theatricalised space that is quite possibly more stage than canvas. In these works David Eastwood is as much director as painter. The furniture with its eerie sentience has a disquieting aspect that is best understood by reference to the term character actor. As do other various objects, which, like everything else in this series of paintings, are meticulously rendered in a halo of fictive space that Eastwood uses to quarantine his actors.
It is the discourse between these hitherto mute objects that links these paintings with current Mise en scène strategies. For Eastwood the pictorial space of the canvas has become a theatre set, a site of action, a rhetorical space where a sort of static, ritualised drama is staged. In these new works a formal and conceptual approach is emerging that has affinities with the theory and practice of cinema and the theatre. It is a new direction for Eastwood. The artist as director interestingly enough has its origins, as does single point perspective, in the early renaissance, when artists elaborated pageants and other forms of spectacle that were – as are the recent works of David Eastwood – complexly coded, often oblique, associative narratives.
Gary Carsley, October 2007
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David Eastwood
Anonymous 6 2004
acrylic on transparent gesso on board 25×18cm
SOLD -
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Exhibitions
- 2011
- David Eastwood
- 2009
- David Eastwood 2009
Biography
1975
Born in Sydney, Australia. Currently lives and works in Sydney
1993-1996
Bachelor of Fine Arts with First Class Honours & University Medal, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
1997-1999
Master of Fine Arts, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
Solo Exhibitions
2011
Decoy Décor, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
Showroom, Australian Institute of Architects, Sydney
2009
Ulterior/Interior, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2007
Mise en scéne, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2005
Marks, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2003
Split, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2001
Crumple, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
1999
COFA Exhibition Space, Sydney
Tilt, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
Selected Group Exhibitions
2012
Redlands Westpac Art Prize, National Art School Gallery, Sydney
2011
Paper Trail, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2010
Kedumba Drawing Award, Kedumba Gallery, Wentworth Falls, NSW
‘Untitled’, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
Metro Art Award, Metro Gallery, Melbourne
‘Still Life Treasures’, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2009
‘Small is the New Big’, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2008
Drawcard, The National Art School Gallery, Sydney
Metro 5 Art Award, Metro 5 Gallery, Melbourne & Benalla Regional Gallery, Victoria
The Young Ones, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2007
Metro 5 Art Award, Metro 5 Gallery, Melbourne and Benalla Regional Art Gallery, Victoria
Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, Adelaide Perry Gallery, Croydon, Sydney
Hazelhurst Art Award: Art on Paper, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, Gymea, NSW
Christmas Show, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2006
Praxis, Kudos Gallery, Sydney
Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, Adelaide Perry Gallery, Sydney
Swan Hill Print and Drawing Acquisitive Awards, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, Victoria
Visions of a Municipality 2: The Second Exhibition of Lane Cove’s Art Treasures, Lane Cove Council, Sydney
ABN AMRO Emerging Artist Award, ABN AMRO Tower, Sydney
Three, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
Shelf Life, The Delmar Gallery, Ashfield, Sydney
Summery Christmas Show, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2005
Praxis, Kudos Gallery, Sydney
Hazelhurst Art Award: Art on Paper, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, Gymea, NSW
Dobell Drawing Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Robert Jacks Drawing Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
The Year In Art, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
The Alumni Prize, Kudos Gallery, Sydney
From the Stockroom, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2004
Willoughby City Art Prize, Willoughby Civic Centre, Sydney
Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney
2003
Praxis, Kudos Gallery, Sydney
Destination Drawing, COFA Exhibition Space, Sydney
Redlands Westpac Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
Still Life, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
The Year in Art, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2002
Paris Days: The UNSW Studio in Paris, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
2001
Praxis, Kudos Gallery, Sydney
Preview, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
Alumni on Paper, Kudos Gallery, Sydney
Context, Kudos Gallery, Sydney and Watt Space Gallery, Newcastle
Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney
2000
The First Show of the Last Year of the Millennium, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
Praxis, Kudos Gallery, Sydney
The Postcard Show, Linden Arts Centre and Gallery, Melbourne
An Appointment with Reality, Sir Hermann Black Gallery, Sydney
Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award, Lane Cove Council Cove Room,
Sydney and Atrium Gallery, ABC Ultimo Centre, Sydney
The Art of Drawing, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney
Selected Works by Gallery Artists, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
1999
50th Anniversary Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
The King’s School Art Prize, The King’s School, Sydney
Willoughby City Art Prize, Willoughby Civic Centre, Sydney
MFA Graduates, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
1998
Uncommon Masters, COFA Exhibition Space, Sydney
Willoughby City Art Prize, Willoughby Civic Centre, Sydney
Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award, Lane Cove Council Cove Room, Sydney
1997
Six Recent Graduates, Crawford Gallery, Sydney
Jenny Birt Award, College of Fine Arts, Sydney
Hatched: Healthway National Graduate Show, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Australia
UNSW Union Art Competition, University of New South Wales, Sydney
National Tertiary Art Prize, Watt Space Gallery, Newcastle, Australia
Royal Over-Seas League 14th Annual Open Exhibition, Over-Seas House, London and Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland
1996
Salon Des Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
Eight is Enough, College of Fine Arts Gallery, Sydney
New Portraiture, College of Fine Arts Gallery, Sydney
Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award, Lane Cove Council Cove Room, Sydney and Atrium Gallery, ABC Ultimo Centre, Sydney
Awards
2010
Kedumba Drawing Award
2008-2009
Australia Council Studio Residency, Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris
2003
Viewers’ Choice Award, Redlands Westpac Art Prize
2001
Commended, Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship
2000
Winner, Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award
1998
Willoughby City Art Prize People’s Choice Award
Highly Commended, Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award
Three month studio residency, Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris
1997-99
Australian Postgraduate Award (Scholarship)
1997
University Medal, University of New South Wales
First Prize, UNSW Union Art Competition
Publications
Anderson, Patricia, ‘City in Everyone’s Image’, The Weekend Australian, August 23–24, 2003, Review p21.
Carsley, Gary, David Eastwood: Mise en scéne, exhibition catalogue, 2007.
Frost, Andrew, ‘Pleasure and Paint’, The Sydney Morning Herald, November 5, 2010, Metro p14.
Frost, Joe, ‘David Eastwood’, Artist Profile, issue 8, 2009, pp66–69.
Gibson, Prue, ‘Draped, folded and concealed’, Australian Art Review, Issue 23, May – July 2010, pp62–63.
Grant, Ian, David Eastwood: Decoy Décor, exhibition catalogue, 2011.
Low, Lenny Ann, ‘Rust For Life’, The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, November 17–18, 2001, Metropolitan p13.
McDonald, John, A Guide to Australian Art and Galleries, Zhu Junbo, Shanghai, 2010, p196.
Schwartzkoff, Louise, ‘Open Gallery’, The Sydney Morning Herald, November 14–15, 2009, Spectrum p18.
Collections
College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
International Drawing Research Institute Archive, University of New South Wales
Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award Collection, Lane Cove Council
Kedumba Collection of Contemporary Australian Drawings
Artist’s Website
