ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a passenger in a fast car, with friends, speeding through the unfamiliar landscape of the Adelaide Hills. This a peak experience. My mind senses the fleeting landmarks and milestones and is brought to mind of other peaks. Peak oil, i.e., Hubbert’s Peak, came and went in the 1970s (and again in 2018). Peak liveability, per the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth, passed in 2008. Marinetti could not have envisioned a more dystopian vision of the future peaking out from beneath his overturned sports car.The way forward was sketched by another Italian, Carlo Petrini: “live slow”.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Gilbert Grace is a visual artist based in Sydney, Australia. In 2016 Gilbert completed the MFA course in painting at the then besieged Sydney College of the Arts. He is currently concentrating on studio practice in painting, printmaking and drawing.
His studio and post-studio practice includes six years of tertiary training and forty plus years of sustained exhibiting and working projects. Passionate about enhancing quality of life and a keen observer of trends in environmental issues Gilbert has focused on encouraging active transport, immersion in space and place, and active participation in the arts. Conservation of resources and retro-innovation figure prominently in his life and art practice.
Gilbert has completed many commissions. A painting design for South Sydney Council, “The New Citizens Fine Art Print”. Three light rail station shelter designs produced for TfNSW the Inner West Light Rail Extension at Arlington, Taverners Hill and Hawthorne stations. He has been twice selected in the Salon de Refuse (Archibald Prize). He was a finalist in numerous Hazelhurst Art On Paper Awards. Gilbert’s paintings and other artworks and collaborations are featured in private collections.
Gilbert has twice won the open section of the GreenWay Art Prize. He actively promotes and supports the greening of Sydney through involvement in the Cooks River to Iron Cove GreenWay as a public advocate and local artist. Inspired by the GreenWay project in 2003 he began researching and promoting an active transport circuit through the catchments of the Inner Sydney Region that is now known as the “Sydney Green Ring”, alternative title, “The Emerald City Trail”. The Sydney Green Ring featured in the 2019 ALIA award winning ‘Cooks to Cove Master plan for the GreenWay’ under the title of the “Botany Bay Loop”.
Gilbert has created and led curated bicycle tours as ARTcycle Inc, promoting habitat renewal through immersion in the local environment, physical and mental health through personal mobility, and autonomy and agency through active travel.
Gilbert is a founding member of BIKESydney, ARTcycle Inc, and Kandos School of Cultural Adaptation (KSCA). Gilbert is a member of NAVA and Copyright Agency.
Website: www.gilbertgrace.com Contacts: M: 0434910422 E: gilbert@gilbertgrace.com
For sales contact Bess: +61 0401 797 746 bess@newsagencygallery.com.au
Gallery hrs are Wednesday – Sunday 10am till 5pm or by appointment
THE PAINTINGS
