BLACKARTPROJECTS & ASH KEATING PRESENT
GRAVITY SYSTEM RESPONSE B L A C K
GRAVITY SYSTEM RESPONSE Sydney Contemporary Carriageworks 245 Wilson Street Everleigh, New South Wales 7 - 10 September, 2017
GRAVITY SYSTEM RESPONSE As a series Ash Keating’s Gravity System Response is not simply an accumulation of works that represent one idea but a system unto which he frames part of his studio practice. Other series include Natural System Response and Remote Nature Response. Each of these groupings refer to the way in which the works are made, be that through natural events such as pooling, wind and temperature or, as in the case with Gravity System Response, by the downward force that attracts the paint to the bottom of the canvas. These labels were chosen some years ago as a way of classifying a technique for creating work that could go on ad infinitum, if he saw fit. More broadly speaking, Keating’s practice is an obsessive exploration into the arbitrary energy of paint, air and water when combined. A number of essays about his studio paintings draw an aesthetic tie to landscape. In these recent works the central funnel shape prompt us to visualise a waterfall, cliffs, a cave or a tornado; in other words, the natural world. Yet these are abstract paintings, both minimalist and maximalist in their scope. Keating is not aiming to create representative images but instead to free colour from any cultural restraints in order to generate unique energy and emotion. Aqua and turquoise are layered underneath intense coatings of purple, silver trickles into black and ultramarine is washed with violet and white pigments. As each colour is applied to the next one can imagine it mixing as it falls, forming under the presence of time and the will of the artist. If we cast our eye back to the origins of the Gravity System Response series it is possible to see just how dramatically different the effects of a systematic approach can be. David Hagger, 2017
Gravity System Response #59 (2017) synthetic polymer on linen 150 x 100 cm
Gravity System Response #61 (2017) synthetic polymer on linen 150 x 100 cm
Gravity System Response #63 (2017) synthetic polymer on linen 150 x 100 cm
Gravity System Response #64 (2017) synthetic polymer on linen 150 x 100 cm
Gravity System Response #66 (2017) synthetic polymer on linen 150 x 100 cm
Gravity System Response #68 (2017) synthetic polymer on linen 150 x 100 cm
Gravity System Response #70 (2017) synthetic polymer on linen 150 x 100 cm
Gravity System Response #72 (2017) synthetic polymer on linen 150 x 100 cm
Gravity System Response #74 (2017) synthetic polymer on linen 150 x 100 cm
ASH KEATING Born Melbourne, Australia 1980 Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting), Monash University 2001-2003 BFA 1st Class Honours (Painting), Victorian College of the Arts 2006 Melbourne-born visual artist Ash Keating has exhibited extensively in galleries and created numerous large-scale, site-responsive art projects in Australia and internationally since 2004. He has undertaken numerous large-scale painting commissions in public spaces for institutions such as the National Gallery of Victoria (2013), RMIT University (2014), the Adelaide Festival Centre (2015) and Lorne Sculpture (2016). His practice has attracted significant attention in Australia, winning the Incinerator Art Prize (2015), Guirguis New Art Prize (2013), Substation Contemporary Art Prize (2012) and his works are held in many public and private collections including the NGV, NGA, MCA, AGNSW, MUMA and Artbank. Recent solo exhibitions include: Gravity System Response, Meat Market (2017), Response Paintings, Latrobe VAC, Bendigo (2016); Remote Nature Response, MONA’s Dark Mofo, Tasmania, (2015); Selected Works 2005-2015, Benalla Art Gallery, Benalla, (2015). Remote Nature Response (2015) was a direct translation of the artists engagement with Cradle Mountain and was commissioned by the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) and DARK MOFO for Cradle Mountain Hotel, Tasmania. Notable group exhibitions include Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, 2013/14; Artist’s Proof #1, Monash University Museum of Art, Caulfield, 2012; City within a City, Artsonje Centre, Seoul, Korea 2011 and Gertude Contemporary 2012.
COLLECTIONS National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, Monash University Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Monash Gallery of Art, Latrobe University Museum of Art, Artbank, Australian War Memorial, Justin Art House Museum, Epworth Hospital, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Federation University of Ballarat, Yarra City Council, Wyndham City Council SELECTED AWARDS Winner of 2015 Incinerator Art Prize, Winner of 2013 Guirguis New Art Prize, Winner of 2012 Substation Contemporary Art Award, Winner of 2011 Qantas Foundation Australian Contemporary Art Award, Winner of 2008 Art & Australia/ANZ/NAVA RIPE Award SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS & PROJECTS 2017 Gravity System Response, Blackartprojects, Melbourne, VIC 2016 Response Paintings, Alaska Projects, Sydney NSW Response Paintings, Latrobe VAC, Bendigo, VIC 2015 Remote Nature Response, Cradle Mountain for MONA Dark Mofo, TAS Selected Works 2005-2015, Benalla Art Gallery, Benalla, VIC Gravity System Response, Blackartprojects, Melbourne, VIC Selected Video Works 2006-2014, Contemporary Arts Centre of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 2014 Natural System Response, Blackartprojects, Sydney, NSW A New Lifelong Landscape, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, VIC 2013 Painting the West Park Proposition, Latrobe VAC, Bendigo, VIC 2012 A New Lifelong Landscape, Art Gallery of Ballarat, VIC A New Lifelong Landscape, 24hr Art, Darwin, NT 2009 Label Land, LUMA | Latrobe University of Modern Art, Bundoora, VIC Label Land, Utopian Slumps, Collingwood, VIC Activate 2750, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Fitzroy, VIC SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS & PROJECTS 2017 Now You See Me, Louvre Museum, Paris, France 2016 Occupied, RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne, VIC Lorne Sculture Biennale, Lorne, VIC 2015 Perceptive Power, RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2014 Video Art from Australia and New Zealand, Artspace Sydney offsite project in Santiago, Chile Subject to Ruin, Casula Powerhouse, Casula, NSW
2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006
Melbourne Now, National Gallery of VIC Guirguis New Art Prize, Post Office Gallery, Ballarat, VIC Mildura Palimpsest 9, Mildura, VIC Artist’s Proof #1, Monash University Museum of Art, Caulfield, VIC City within a City, Gertrude Contemporary, Fitzroy, VIC City within a City, Gertrude Contemporary International, Artsonje Centre, Seoul, Korea Artists In Residence AIR 3331, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan Gardensity, 6th SCAPE Biennial, Christchurch, New Zealand Studio Artists 2010, Gertrude Contemporary, Fitzroy, VIC Space Invaders, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT Studio Artists 2009, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Fitzroy, VIC The Ecologies Project, Monash University of Modern Art, Clayton, VIC Heat: Climate Change and Art, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, VIC Standingby 000, Gallery Loop offsite project at Xii Gallery, Haepjong Seoul, South Korea Publicity, curated by Reuben Keehan, CACSA, Adelaide, SA and Artspace, Wooloomooloo, Sydney, NSW TRANSVERSA, The South Project at Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago, Chile Octopus 6 – We Know Who We Are, Gertrude Contemporary, VIC
SELECTED SITE SPECIFIC SOLO ART PROJECTS 2016 Coastal Horizon Response, Lorne Sculpture Biennale, VIC Arch Tunnel Response, North Byron Parklands, Splendour Arts, NSW Sugar Mountain Festival, VCA Melbourne, VIC North Park Proposition, Epping, VIC Concrete Propositions 2, Christchurch Central City, New Zealand 2015 The Facade Project, Latrobe Visual Arts Centre, Bendigo, VIC Adelaide Festival Centre, presented by CACSA Adelaide, SA Sugar Mountain Festival, VCA Melbourne, VIC South East Park Proposition, Pakenham VIC 2014 RMIT A’Beckett Urban Square, Melbourne, VIC 2013 Continuum, Mildura Palimpsest 9, Mildura, VIC NGV International Billboard Intervention for Melbourne Now, Melbourne, VIC 2012 West Park Proposition, Monash University Museum, Truganina, VIC Gertrude Modern, Gertrude Contemporary, Fitzroy, VIC Concrete Propositions, Christchurch Central City, New Zealand 2011 Ascension, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan Namsan Plus, Artsonje Centre, Seoul, Korea
2009 2008 2007 2006
Gardensity, 6th SCAPE Biennial, Christchurch, New Zealand Activate 2750, Museum of Contemporary Art C3West, Penrith, NSW Eureco, Ballarat Art Academy, VIC Timuran, The South Project, Yogyakarta, Indonesia Copenhagen?, City of Melbourne Mockridge Fountain, Melbourne, VIC Label Land, Loop Alternative Artspace, Seoul, Korea 2020?, Next Wave Festival, Arts House, VIC Parched, City of Melbourne Mockridge Fountain, Melbourne, VIC Pascua Lama, The South Project, Museo de Art Contemporaneo, Santiago, Chile
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