Andrew Clarke

Andrew Clarke is an artist based in Adelaide, South Australia, whose work considers the role of figuration and narrative within contemporary painting practice.  Andrew graduated from Adelaide Central School of Art in 2015 completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts and has undertaken previous studies in visual arts at the UNSW College of Fine Arts in Sydney. Andrew is a founding member and member of the committee of the artist run studio and gallery Floating Goose Studios Inc.

Artist statement - Arcadian Visions

In Arcadian Visions I take as my subject a traditional genre of landscape painting known as “the pastoral”. Traditionally, the pastoral depicts an idealized view of nature, and in particular the pastoral lifestyle, for the enjoyment of an urban audience. As is often the case within my practice, I have somewhat subverted this handling of the subject matter, introducing elements of vagrancy and delinquency, at times perhaps evocative of a shameful stumble homewards in the early hours of the morning. Despite this, I have sought to retain the lyric and romantic quality that is so present in the works of masters of the genre. A poetic distancing from the ordinary and the now. I have sought to obtain that quality of primordial otherness that the natural presents when filtered through the glass of time.  

Selected Exhibitions

2018
Mephistopheles' Yellow Vacuum Cleaner, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide

2017
Form, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide

2016
What Lies Beyond the Margin, BMGArt, Adelaide
Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition, Torrens Parade Ground, Adelaide
Floating Goose at BMG, BMGArt, Adelaide

2015
Propositions, Adelaide Central School of Art Graduate Exhibition, Adelaide
Occasional Purpose, Floating Goose Studios Gallery, Adelaide
ID Portraiture and Identity, Adelaide Airport, SALA Festival, Adelaide
Verisimilitude (ver-i-sim-i-lar-dude), Floating Goose Studios Gallery, Adelaide

Awards

2017
Emma Hack Prize (finalist)

2016
Salon des Refuses (finalist)
Sunshine Coast Prize (finalist)

2015
Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (finalist)
Sunshine Coast Art Prize (finalist)

2014
Cliftons Art Prize (finalist)