‘Assorted Memories’, represents Brenton Schwab’s current and continuing search for the abstract in our natural and urban communities.
Brenton Schwab’s work is mostly abstract, with a minimalist aesthetic. ‘Assorted Memories’ consists of 60 works on paper (30x42 and 27x35cm), using the 3 gallery walls to exhibit 3 divergent series.
One series, the ‘Stripe Paintings’, began as a way to use up paint and becomes a reflection on our depleting natural resources.
While the ‘Assorted Abstract’ series are painted in a style that has developed through his work since the early 1990s. This range of images demonstrates his connection to and understanding of our natural environment.
The 3rd series, ‘Coloured Aerials’, are drawings of the shapes seen while flying across Australia. Playing with ambiguity these impressions are representational sketches of manmade landscapes, seen 30,000 feet below. When viewed on the gallery wall they take on a non-representational appearance and are another branch of his ongoing investigation into the abstract.
Throughout his work diversity becomes the concept and is a direct link to the randomness and variety he loves in nature. For the viewer, these abstract works often raises questions of how and why. Schwab directs similar questions toward the unresolved environmental issues we face today.
On this journey to unravel the abstract, his early work had links to abstract expressionism, while more recently there is a shift toward post-minimalism and non-objective processes. While these styles can be visually and philosophically different, their motivation and process can be similar. Briefly, these movements aim to raise questions, stimulate thinking and abandon convention. In Schwab’s case his processes are also a meditation on the variety in our world.
Brenton Schwab’s work is mostly abstract, with a minimalist aesthetic. ‘Assorted Memories’ consists of 60 works on paper (30x42 and 27x35cm), using the 3 gallery walls to exhibit 3 divergent series.
One series, the ‘Stripe Paintings’, began as a way to use up paint and becomes a reflection on our depleting natural resources.
While the ‘Assorted Abstract’ series are painted in a style that has developed through his work since the early 1990s. This range of images demonstrates his connection to and understanding of our natural environment.
The 3rd series, ‘Coloured Aerials’, are drawings of the shapes seen while flying across Australia. Playing with ambiguity these impressions are representational sketches of manmade landscapes, seen 30,000 feet below. When viewed on the gallery wall they take on a non-representational appearance and are another branch of his ongoing investigation into the abstract.
Throughout his work diversity becomes the concept and is a direct link to the randomness and variety he loves in nature. For the viewer, these abstract works often raises questions of how and why. Schwab directs similar questions toward the unresolved environmental issues we face today.
On this journey to unravel the abstract, his early work had links to abstract expressionism, while more recently there is a shift toward post-minimalism and non-objective processes. While these styles can be visually and philosophically different, their motivation and process can be similar. Briefly, these movements aim to raise questions, stimulate thinking and abandon convention. In Schwab’s case his processes are also a meditation on the variety in our world.
