GEORGE BYRNE COLOR FIELD
Cover: East Hollywood Carpark 2016 Archival pigment print 147 x 120 cm Edition of 5 + 2AP $4,400 unframed
GEORGE BYRNE COLOR FIELD 3 – 17 June 2017 Exhibition Opening Saturday 3rd June 2017, 2 – 4 pm
A bold, pink billboard hovers upon a surface of sky. A parking bollard offers a singular stripe of color. A wall joins a stretch of pavement; a shadow intercepts to delineate between textural grounds. Multiple balloons float, mid-air; circular repetitions of yellow amidst flanks of white and blue. A stairwell is not a stairwell but a construct of color, recession and line.
The third dimensions of buildings fall away to become flat planes, shadow-dropped surfaces with edges. Shifting light paints highlights and shadows, hinting at passing time. Street-front façades become poised simulacrum of buildings and signposts, hedges and pedestrian crossings. The subtle complexities in these works arise from a nuanced interplay of color, line, surface and texture. Byrne’s editing acts as a scalpel, collaging the city down.
In the mastery of cropping one discerns the photographic reduction of Lewis Baltz and Ellsworth Kelly. The sentiment of Robert Adams’ sense of place is present. Likewise, informed by Stephen Shore, Byrne’s works summon a certain iconicity, despite the subject matter of urban banality. Drawing from artists who redefined landscape photography with an intent to document the raw topography of things, Byrne too hones a pared-back aesthetic.
George Byrne is also a photographer influenced by painters. Dealing intricately with surface, line and texture, his Hockney-esque outlook is bold, yet refined. In his compositional exercises, echoes of Australian painter Jeffrey Smart come forth; the hallowed utility of the street. A legacy of Diebenkorn’s landscapes ghost beneath his cropping and surface treatment. Byrne seeks to capture the relationship between colors, as meditations, one field of color against another, not unlike the pursuit of mid-century painters.
Susan Joy Krieg
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Pink Desert 2015 Archival pigment print 101.6 x 101.6 cm Edition of 5 + 2AP $3,300 unframed
El Chavo 2015 Archival pigment print 101.6 x 101.6 cm Edition of 5 + 2AP $3,300 unframed
Caryard 2015 Archival pigment print 101.6 x 101.6 cm Edition of 5 + 2AP $3,300 unframed
Feder’s, The Valley 2015 Archival pigment print 101.6 x 101.6 cm Edition of 5 + 2AP $3,300 unframed
Cahuenga 2016 Archival pigment print 101.6 x 101.6 cm Edition of 5 + 2AP $3,300 unframed
Burbank 2015 Archival pigment print 101.6 x 101.6 cm Edition of 5 + 2AP $3,300 unframed
99c Culver City 2016 Archival pigment print 101.6 x 101.6 cm Edition of 5 + 2AP $3,300 unframed
99c Silverlake #3 2016 Archival pigment print 101.6 x 101.6 cm Edition of 5 + 2AP $3,300 unframed
Palm Spring #1 2016 Archival pigment print 121 x 148.5 cm Edition of 5 $4,400 unframed
Burton Way 2015 Archival pigment print 101.6 x 101.6 cm Edition of 5 + 2AP $3,300 unframed
Bank Palm Springs 2015 Archival pigment print 147 x 120 cm Edition of 5 + 2AP $4,400 unframed
Virgil 2015 Archival pigment print 147 x 120 cm Edition of 5 + 2AP $4,400 unframed
GEORGE BYRNE Born 1976, Sydney EDUCATION Fort St High School, Sydney 1989 – 1994 Bachelor of Arts, Sydney University 1996 - 1998 Bachelor of Visual Arts, Sydney College of the Arts 1998 - 2001
SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2017
Color Field – OLSEN Gallery, Annexe
2017
In partnership with Halycon House and Mr Porter
2016
Local Division – Olsen Irwin Sydney
2015
Local Division - Contact Photo Los Angeles
2014
INSTANT (SYDNEY - MELBOURNE - BRISBANE)
2013
INSTA LA - HEMINGWAY AND PICKET LOS ANGELES
2009
RECOLLECTIONS - Charles Hewitt Gallery Sydney
2002
ITALY - Span Gallery Melbourne
2001
ITALY - Global Gallery
2000
INDIA - New Perspectives - Global Gallery
GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2016
Monograph – SOHO NYC FOCUS Photo LA – The Reef / LA Mart
2015
MY LA – Hive Gallery, Los Angeles Australian And International Contemporary Photography – Olsen Irwin Sydney
2014
ASTRAY – CHASM Gallery Brooklyn NY Other Desert Spaces – The Standard Hotel West Hollywood Los Angeles Almost Neighbors – The Know Where Bar Los Angeles
2000
DEGREES SCA Third Year Exhibition @ newspace. Yellowglen Young Photographer of the Year Traveling Exhibition. Sydney (Byron Mapp) – Melbourne – Brisbane – Adelaide.
GRANTS / AWARDS 2017
Winner HEAD ON landscape NSW Award
2016
Finalist FOCUS Photo LA
2015
Finalist HEAD ON Photo awards
2014
Finalist HEAD ON Photo awards
2012
Finalist HEAD ON Photo awards
2010
Finalist HEAD ON Photo awards
2001
$5000 Lavazza traveling scholarship
2000
2nd Place, Yellowglen Young Photographer of the Year Award
1998
2nd Place IMAGE Magazine Student Competition.
1999 .
Runner-up Sydney Morning Herald Jeffrey Smart ‘moments’ competition
PUBLICATIONS British Journal Of Photography Paper Sea LA Canvas Monster Children Focus Magazine Assemble Papers Nourished Journal LA ‘Where – Guestbook’ The MANIFESTO NO Magazine Harpers Bazaar (USA) Manifesto Magazine (Aus) if MAGAZINE Oyster Magazine REMNANTS IMAGE Magazine
GEORGE BYRNE COLOR FIELD 3 – 17 June 2017 Exhibition Opening Saturday 3rd June 2017, 2 – 4 pm