André de Vanny

This work will be on show at Carriageworks from 3-6 September as part of Curatorial+Co.'s Sydney Contemporary 2026 presentation.

André de Vanny explores the tension between the abject and the sublime, drawing on the ethereal qualities of early Renaissance painting and the visual language of contemporary abstraction. His practice is deeply physical, incorporating cycles of disintegration and repair that reflect the human experiences of trauma, resilience, and healing.

Memories of growing up in rural Australia inform a palette dominated by ochres, umbers, and iron-rich reds. “As a child, I spent long hours roaming the bush through dry gullies, abandoned quarries, and old military bunkers, imagining heroic figures moving through those spaces. Those early acts of imaginative play continue to linger in the work,” says de Vanny. His layered foundations result from months of washing, staining, and reworking — an accumulation of time and labour that grounds his more painterly, figurative compositions. Variations in speed, rhythm, and intensity of line hold the figure, while tone, colour, depth, and contrast build an affective register within the work."