17 October – 2 November 2024
about the exhibition
In this exhibition David Frazer continues to unravel complex human experiences. Working with deeply thematic imagery and drawing upon song lyrics, David seeks to explore the nuances of poetry and visual expression. Transmuted in intimate scenes and landscapes, music provides inspiration for David as a storyteller. The impact of carefully chosen words are conveyed in David’s linocuts, etchings and wood engravings that are at times tender, witty and sombre. He is a master printmaker and his extraordinary technical skills move seamlessly through printmaking mediums. This body of work stems from a collaboration with singer-songwriter Tom Waits. Themes of love, melancholy and the passage of time emerge from this collaboration and are all explored thoughtfully by David within his intricate mark-making. The tree, either standing solitary or entwined with another, is a key motif in this exhibition, representing stories that are at once fantastical and universal. David says of this exhibition, “My latest work portrays the hands of time – getting old, aches and pains, life’s journey with family and the solace of nature and love in the face of fear and uncertainty…”
Born in Victoria, David Frazer graduated from the Phillip Institute of Technology, Melbourne with a Fine Art degree specialising in painting. In 1996 he achieved an Honours degree from Monash University specialising in Printmaking and in 2000, gained his Master of Arts. In 2007 he was the major prize winner in the International Print Bienniale, Guanlan, China and in the same year was featured on the ABC’s documentary series ‘Artist at Work’. In 2013 he won the open section acquisitive prize, Silk Cut Award, for his major work ‘Waiting for Rain’ which has also been included in a number of other awards and prize exhibitions. David’s work has been highly commended in the Megalo International Print Prize in Canberra in 2019, as well as being a finalist in the National Works on Paper, at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in Victoria in 2020. He has held over fifty solo exhibitions and is represented widely across Australia and overseas in collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, Australian War Memorial, State Library of Victoria and Chiang Mai Contemporary Art Museum (Thailand).
