Karl Wiebke: Painting 1994-2012

Image: Karl Wiebke
Sticks (installation view)
acrylic and enamel on wood. Courtesy the artist and Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney.

 

For Melbourne artist Karl Wiebke the making of images as in the representation of objects and the creation of visual effects that do not grow out of the painting process itself is an archaic and unnecessary obstacle to the making of art. ‘I am a painter reducing my means to the ground, the paint and the instrument.’ (Artistprofile p65 Issue 5 2008)

This survey exhibition focuses on Wiebke’s painting oeuvre. With each series of works Wiebke sets up a different process to explore the object-ness of painting itself, teasing out the properties and possibilities of the medium.  The earliest works in the exhibition are heavily layered paint drips that have been applied over a period of several years so that they accrete a thickness that makes them manifestly three dimensional. These paintings were produced outdoors so that weather events such as rain drops and sun bleaching could leave evidence of the passing of real time on their substance. With his 2003-5 series Wiebke’s procedure was to weave a painted surface with lines in a single colour on a monochrome ground, methodically applying a fine line that ultimately alters our perception of the ground. This is art where the relationship between artist and materials is peculiarly intimate, affected by process, time and deliberation. Wiebke’s more recent works have further pushed the boundaries of the concept of traditional painting practice working on large rings and fine rods that invite viewers to include the spatial context and any incidental phenomena into their perception of the works.

Hear painter John Peart as he officially launched the exhibtion Karl Wiebke Painting 1994 – 2012 on 12 April 2012.

Curated by Tony Oates.

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