Shaun taught piano

I disagree with the idea that artworks exist only insofar as they are available for human viewing. Artworks tend to be more interested in pointing out how they exist, act, and “live” beyond the realms of human perception, a paradox of sorts given the contrived nature of artworks.

      –Dale Frank

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery is thrilled to present new works by Dale Frank in Shaun taught piano for our first online exhibition.

With the new addition of powdered pigments, there is a watercolour-like translucency to these dazzling new works that make them shimmer in ethereality, like floating cosmos, lost in the dream of a summer’s day. At times with a glaring vibrancy, they draw us in. They are addictive: swirling layers that seem to capture eternity and defeat time.

They are poetic creations of our inner worlds: invisible realms, places we wish we could visit, dreams we’ve never had, landscapes we hope to see. Frank’s expert handling of colour with both a harmonious precision and a clashing exuberance through calculated scientific equations allows for an enticing exploration of the self and our relationship to art.

With their brilliantly reflective surfaces, the works become both the observed and the observer. Frank keeps us at a distance conceptually, gifting us with his seductive outer world which becomes us, the viewer and the world we have stepped into. Reflected back on ourselves, like Narcissus, we see the world within, often blurred, distorted or partially exposed. Frank’s explorations offer up a considered discourse into the history of painting, questioning both the artist's and the viewer's role while holding space for this discourse, just like his paintings, to change and evolve over time.

     –Victoria Scott

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Dale Frank’s abstract paintings have been exhibited internationally since the 1980s, showing at PS1, New York (1981), Biennale of Sydney (1982), 42nd Venice Biennale (1983 and 1984). Frank was included in the exhibition Panorama della post - critica: critica ed arte at the Museo Palazzo Lanfranchi in Pisa along with Thomas Lawson and Anselm Kiefer. Recent selected group exhibitions include Unpainting, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2017-18); Dark Heart, curated by Nick Mitzevich, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (2014); Mix Tape 1980s: Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013); and Les Arts De L’effervescence Champagne, Musée des Beaux Arts de Reims, France (2013). In 2013, his work was featured in Personal Structures  at the Palazzo Bembo as part of the official program of the 55th Venice Biennale. A major solo retrospective of his work was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney in 2000. Frank’s work is held in all major Australian state galleries, and a number of regional and university collections. It is also held in international collections, including Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, New Zealand; Musée de Ville de Leige, Leige; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Zurich Kunsthaus; and a number of corporate collections.