23 July - 11 August 2009
about the exhibition
David Frazer explores the universal themes of truth, despair and the fragile state of the human condition in his artworks. With characteristic imagination and wit, David depicts isolation and both rural and urban decline in his finely detailed wood engravings, lithographs, etchings, paintings and bronzes. Images of abandonment, alienation and longing are invested with ambiguity, optimism and wry humour. Although his stage is typically Australian, the story is universal, drawing tensions between survival and despair, vitality and emptiness in images that are both poignant and vaguely unsettling. Sparsely inhabited landscapes and funny, sad characters suggest dreams of utopia faded through the hardships of isolation, weather and neglect. His images address human frailty – wrestling with the insecure desire for fame and fortune and the quest for a contented heart.
Born in Victoria, David Frazer graduated in 1996 from the Monash University with an Honours Degree in Fine Art specialising in Printmaking and, in 2000, gained his Master of Arts. In 2002, David was awarded the Keith Wingrove Bookplate Design Award and, in 2007, he was a major prize winner at the International Print Biennial in Guanlan, China and a featured Australian artist on the ABC’s documentary series “Artist at Work”. His works are represented widely across Australia and overseas in collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, Australian War Memorial, State Library of Victoria and Chiangmai Contemporary Art Museum of Thailand.
