Last Bondi

John Adair's exhibition is the latest in a long series of works that have dealt with the landscape of Bondi Beach.

"My earliest memories and dreams started in Bondi... up until quite recently I have associated myself with the landscape, mainly through surfing and then through art."

The elements of the beach landscape have been distilled and coded by Adair to form supremely simple yet highly evocative images, rich with the colours of the sea, sand and sky. The subtle changes in mood that occurs at different times of the day are suggested by Adair's use of repetition and variation.

Linking the exhibition together are the twelve colours that Adair has isolated as representative of the landscape. Flesh, yellow, red, and a range of greens, blues and browns are reconfigured in a number of witty and ingenious ways: a row of balls, a set of shelves, a grid of squares, a splash of dots.

As Adair puts it: "Over the past 18 years I have developed a visual language using prime elements of the Bondi Beach landscape. These works have developed out of a need to contextualise and reconcile my feelings for a particular landscape."

The title, Last Bondi, refers to a kind of farewell by Adair to the landscape of Bondi. "Living in the same building since 1981, 99% of my work has been of Bondi and at Bondi. Last year I moved out of Bondi because the building and studio I lived in were to be pulled down." Landscape, as we all know, is never fixed, and despite the timeless qualities of the beach, its urban aspects mean that it will forever be in a state of flux.