Dallas Bray

Middle Ground

Exhibition dates: Weds 04 to Sat 21 June 2008
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Once described as the Samuel Beckett of Newcastle painters, Dallas Bray returns to the Damien Minton Gallery for the solo exhibition, Middle Ground.

Bray is one of the most loved of contemporary painters in the industrial city of NSW, having exhibited in Newcastle for over two decades.

In that time he has developed a unique position with his beguiling and disturbing vision of the mundane meeting the absurd.

Seemingly beautiful and luscious landscapes contain characters and scenarios which provoke a surreal narrative.

This exhibition also includes a series of still life paintings. Obscure visual puns interlace with seemingly inconsequential arrangements, alluding to a more profound content.

“This range of work cross-references each other and develops as diaries of thoughts, ideas and impressions”, Bray has said of Middle Ground.

Bray’s work can be found in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, when the then director James Mollison saw and purchased his work in 1986. The collector, curator and artist, Peter Fay has also been a fan, including his work in the seminal exhibition Home Sweet Home.

“He can be playful; pitting incongruous elements together in condensed compositions designed to intrigue. He is also alert to the humour in life’s simplest rituals. Quirky, sometimes caustic and often political. Bray’s paintings go behind the public facades in search of private stories to tell,” states Meryl Ryan, curator, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery.

Born

Moree, NSW

Education

1984Newcastle College of Advanced Education
        Graduate Diploma in painting

1983Newcastle College of Advanced Education
        Diploma in Art

Selected solo and group exhibitions

2008Middle Ground, Damien Minton Gallery Redfern
2007Special Forces, Newcastle Art Space
2006Levity, Boutwell-Draper Gallery, Redfern
2006Nature Strip, John Paynter Gallery, Newcastle
2005New Paintings, Boutwell-Draper Gallery, Redfern
2004Bonus, Damien Minton Gallery, Newcastle
2003Home Sweet Home, Works from the Peter Fay
        Collection, Travelling Exhibition, NGA, Canberra
2003Night paintings, Damien Minton Gallery, Newcastle
2001New Work, Damien Minton Gallery, Newcastle
2001Mayfield Placemaking Artwork
1998Steelworks, University of Newcastle
1997Minim Signage Mural Art Project
1996Throsby Creek Art Project
1995General Knowledge, James Harvey Gallery, Balmain
1994Recent Works, James Harvey Gallery, Balmain
1991Slopes and Plains, Moree Plains Regional Gallery
1988Artist in Residence, Newcastle Region Art Gallery
1988New Generation, NGA, Canberra
1985Boomtime, Newcastle Workers Club, NSW

Collections

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Sydney University