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An exhibition of recent paintings, prints and drawings

BY ANDREW SUTHERLAND

Sutherland has been an avid adventurer and armchair traveller since he was a child. His capacity to plunge into a meaningful imaginative journey through images is at times as visceral an experience as his actual trips through Taiwan, Vietnam and South Africa. He is a passionate collector of picture books, relishing the curious scenes of landscapes, animals and plants that historic explorers have published, whether in pursuit of vague scientific credence or nostalgic reflection.

 

For his latest solo exhibition at Salon Ninety One titled Field Notes, Sutherland has embodied the position of the explorer and amassed an amazing collection of drawings, paintings and prints of his imaginative adventures through images. He is contently seduced by the faded colour palettes of old books or early photographs and finds innovative expression for this passion in new techniques featured on Field Notes for the first time.

These include impasto oil paintings on primed paper, as well as his first risographs - a form of digital printing that uses colour separations.

In Field Notes Sutherland crafts a wistful portrait of the adventurer-explorer from yesteryear. His saturation in experiences mediated by book, film or documentary has led him to exploit a variety of artistic surfaces and painted marks in the exhibition. Through digital print, oil paint, acrylic and drawings, Sutherland invites viewers to immerse themselves in an imaginative journey through picture places of wonder.

Take a walk through the forest, listen to the faint sound of birds in the distance, all you can hear is your own footsteps, close your eyes and imagine you are out there smelling the soil, breathing in fresh green air.

 

(AUDIO: Nina Foletti; Walks on stones)

ANDREW SUTHERLAND is inspired by wanderlust and the narratives that underlie human encounters with the natural world. His work relishes the delights of landscape in painted planes that combine graphic and illustrative elements with more traditionally painterly, expressive marks. His taste for adventure follows through with a long and explorative history of experimentation with different materials: watercolours, brush pens, acrylic paints, charcoal, ink, spray paint or collage on canvas, paper, wood or wall. Sutherland’s training was in Fine Art at The Ruth Prowse School of Art, after which he worked as an assistant to a local abstract painter in Cape Town.

He travels and adventures frequently so that in both artwork and life his subtext remains that of the intrepid explorer.

The sky is clear, the stars are out, nocturnal creatures are awakening. Listen to the sounds of the forest by night, you’re safe and warm inside your tent, but it’s wild and alive out there.

 

(AUDIO: Danjocross; Coyotes)

ARTWORKS

The Field Notes collection became available for sale online on Wednesday the 1st of April. The exhibition launch at the gallery will be postponed until further notice. Thank you for your interest in Andrew Sutherland’s work, should you wish to receive an online catalogue please send an email to enquiries@salon91.co.za or call +27 82 679 3906 for further information.

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