Alex Byrne is a Sydney based printmaker working primarily with the non toxic Semenoff etching process to create etchings and aquatints.
Barka/Apocalypse features two series of etchings and aquatints and builds on my previous exhibitions at Gaffa, in 2016 and 2020. I have continued to explore the potentialities of the copper sulphate/salt on aluminium etching process developed by Nik Semenoff.
The despoliation of our Murray Darling River system is explored in Barka (the Pakaantji name for the Darling). Thirty seven aquatints and etchings are printed on a nine metre length of Velin Arches paper, recalling the strip maps used by the paddle steamer skippers on those great rivers, when they were mighty. As with the original maps, the paper is mounted on two rollers in a timber case so that it can be rolled from one to the other, revealing the prints one by one. For the exhibition, I will unroll it from the case so that it can be draped across the floor. A selection of the prints will be framed and hung nearby together with a slideshow of all the prints. All the prints are available for sale, framed.
Apocalypse consists of seven large aquatints that present the travails of 2020, from fire and flood to pandemic. It draws on the ‘seven last plagues’ described in the Bible’s Book of Revelations referencing metaphorically the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, the death of our rivers and drought, fire and flood, lightning and hail, pandemic and pests.
Alex Byrne is a Sydney based printmaker working primarily with the non toxic Semenoff etching process to create etchings and aquatints.
2016 Murmurs of the Heart at Gaffa Gallery, Sydney
2018 Dunera at Hay Shire Library, Hay
2020 26 Views of Uluru at Gaffa Gallery, Sydney
Prints and artists books in private collections and the State Libraries of Queensland and NSW.
My recent work has focussed on exploring an artistic perspective on Australia’s history and our treatment of Indigenous peoples and on our rivers, their history and the environmental crisis caused by long term mismanagement.
alexbyrne.com.au
Barka/Apocalypse features two series of etchings and aquatints and builds on my previous exhibitions at Gaffa, in 2016 and 2020. I have continued to explore the potentialities of the copper sulphate/salt on aluminium etching process developed by Nik Semenoff.
The despoliation of our Murray Darling River system is explored in Barka (the Pakaantji name for the Darling). Thirty seven aquatints and etchings are printed on a nine metre length of Velin Arches paper, recalling the strip maps used by the paddle steamer skippers on those great rivers, when they were mighty. As with the original maps, the paper is mounted on two rollers in a timber case so that it can be rolled from one to the other, revealing the prints one by one. For the exhibition, I will unroll it from the case so that it can be draped across the floor. A selection of the prints will be framed and hung nearby together with a slideshow of all the prints. All the prints are available for sale, framed.
Apocalypse consists of seven large aquatints that present the travails of 2020, from fire and flood to pandemic. It draws on the ‘seven last plagues’ described in the Bible’s Book of Revelations referencing metaphorically the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, the death of our rivers and drought, fire and flood, lightning and hail, pandemic and pests.
Alex Byrne is a Sydney based printmaker working primarily with the non toxic Semenoff etching process to create etchings and aquatints.
2016 Murmurs of the Heart at Gaffa Gallery, Sydney
2018 Dunera at Hay Shire Library, Hay
2020 26 Views of Uluru at Gaffa Gallery, Sydney
Prints and artists books in private collections and the State Libraries of Queensland and NSW.
My recent work has focussed on exploring an artistic perspective on Australia’s history and our treatment of Indigenous peoples and on our rivers, their history and the environmental crisis caused by long term mismanagement.
alexbyrne.com.au
