Adam Nudelman

"Adam Nudelman is a painter of exceptional talent. He achieves what most people believe is central to good art: making it look real. This is no more apparent than in the skies which dominate this body of work. From the glow of the morning light to the foreboding sky of an approaching storm, Nudelman follows in the footsteps of Ruisdael, Constable and Turner capturing the subtleties and beauty of the ever-changing umbrella under which we live. Like his predecessors, he steers away from the kitsch and the stereotype.  The sun bursting through dense clouds, the pink hue colouring a late afternoon sky or low-lying clouds rolling in across distant ranges are the result of extensive watching, studying and learning. Nudelman articulates that feeling of pure wonderment experienced when we stand before nature at its most beautiful.

However, Nudelman’s work goes far beyond the mere representational. It is more than just making it look real. His works are a collage, a composite, a constructed reality. They challenge the viewer ever so subtly, pushing us into a world at once known but also eerily foreign. Once dominated by skeletal towers, monkey bars and geodesic domes Nudelman’s recent landscapes are punctuated with long cavernous ship hulls, the graphic ghosts of modernist architecture and solitary survey markers: structures familiar but often in a different guise and context. The ship hulls, pristine and delicate despite being stripped of their skin, stretch forlornly across the canvas, surreally miles away from the water where they once floated. The lines of Lloyd Wright and Seidler-like modernist houses rise from grasslands where there are no signs of inhabitation. Solid markers stand lost in the landscape as if they have been mysteriously placed under the cloak of darkness. These ambiguous punctuations add a psychological nature to the work. Some contain the idea of presence rather than being present while others, relic-like, imbue a sense of a lost dynasty.

Nudelman, like his work, is of a contradictory nature. He is an artist firmly entrenched in the past: classical in technique, aware of the science and rules of composition and fascinated by the sublime like Turner, Constable and Ruisdael before him. However, he is very much an artist of today: aware of contemporary discourse, engaged with the psychology possible in picture making and constantly looking for ways to rediscover, rearticulate and represent the world in which we live. "Vincent Alessi
Artistic Director, LUMA | La Trobe University Museum of Art, Melbourne  

EDUCATION
1998:                                   
Australian Catholic University
Grad Dip Education (Sec)
1992-1995:                       
Melbourne University, Victorian College of the Arts
BA (Fine Arts) Painting
1990-1991:                       
Western Metropolitan College of TAFE
Advanced Certificate- Art & Design           

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010            
A Generous Allotment, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide
2009            
Reading the Markers, Art Equity, Sydney
62 Days in the Highlands, Paiomena Gallery, Launceston.
2008            
Waiting for the Fall, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne.
Defining the Silence, Art Equity, Sydney.
In Their Footsteps - shoes paintings 1997-2007, The Australian Jewish Museum, Melbourne.
2006           
Silence, Identity & the Landscape, James Makin Gallery, Armadale.
Return to Lake Mungo, Bundoora Homestead Art Gallery, Melbourne.
2005           
Surveying Structure, Rushcutters Bay Gallery, Sydney, NSW.
2004           
Uncovering Identity, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne
60 Months of Identity, Bundoora Homestead Art Gallery, Melbourne
Observing Structure, Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne.
2003           
Surveying Identity, The Australian Jewish Museum, Melbourne.
Another Legacy, The Besen Center, Mt Scopus Memorial College, Melbourne
2002           
Interplay, Inheritance & Identity, Rushcutters Bay Gallery, Sydney, NSW.
A Survey of Inheritance, The Australian Jewish Museum, Melbourne.
2001           
Taking Stock, Aviva Campbell Gallery, Melbounre.
1999           
Taking a New Perpective, Charles Smith Gallery, Fitzroy.
1997           
Snowy Mountain Landscapes, Hurstbridge Goldworks Gallery, Eltham
1992 –1993           
Still Life, V.C.A Gallery,  Melbourne

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010                                    
Autumn Collection, James Makin Gallery, Collingwood
2009                                    
Recent Acquisitions, La Trobe University of Modern Art, Bundoora Campus
2008                                   
Winter Collection, James Makin Galllery, Collingwood.
Winter Collection, James Makin Galllery, Armadale.           
Glover Prize Finalists’, Launceston, Tasmania.
Autumn Collection, James Makin Galllery, Armadale.           
2007                                   
Natura Morte, James Makin Galllery, Armadale.
2006                                   
Salon de Monstalvat’, Montsalvat Gallery, Eltham.
2006                                   
Winter Collection, James Makin Gallery, Armadale.
2006                                   
Melbourne Art Fair, Port Jackson Press, Exhibition Buildings Melbourne
2005                                   
The Anita Show, Counihan Gallery, Brunswick.                                 
Winter Collection, Port Jackson Press Gallery, Brunswick.                               
Journeys In Identity, Bundoora Homestead Art Gallery, Melbourne
2004                                   
With Love to Israel, Temple Beth Israel, Melbourne                                  
Precious Platters, Sotheby's Fine Art, Victoria.                                    
The White Bull, Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria.
2003                                   
Smart Art, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne.                           
Hidden Treasures of the City of Darebin Art Collection, Bundoora Homestead Art Gallery, Melbourne.                                 
The Group Show, Artholes Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria.
2003                                   
Kosher Culture, The Australian Jewish Museum, Melbourne.
2002                                    '
Five % ', Red Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria.
1999-2003                       
We Are Australian, touring exhibition, The George Adams Gallery, Melbourne,                                    
Volvo Gallery Sydney,
National Museum Canberra,
Art Gallery of Tasmania,                                    
Art gallery of Durban South Africa, Art Gallery of Queensland
 Rearvision, Span Galleries, Melbourne.
 Mixed Pictures, Charles Smith Gallery, Melbourne
1999                                   
Three Perspectives, Charles Smith Gallery, Fitzroy.
The Post-Postcard Show, Linden Gallery, St. Kilda.
 Exposed, Aquinas College Gallery, Ringwood.
 Wildlife, Port Jackson Press Gallery, Brunswick.
1998                                   
A Survey Of Our Landscape, Charles Smith Gallery, Fitzroy.
1996                                   
Five Painters, Re-Entombed Gallery, High Street, Armadale
1994                                   
Graduate Show, Victorian College of the Arts Gallery
Mootwingee Field Trip, V.C.A. Gallery, Melbourne
1992 –1993           
Travelling TAFE Art Exhibition, Melbourne and Major Regional Centres.
Melway Show, V.C.A. Gallery, Melbourne
1992                                   
Lake Mungo/Nindethana,
Travelling Group Show, Bendigo – Geelong –  Melbourne – Sunraysia
TAFE Graduate Exhibition, Judith Pugh Gallery, Fitzroy