André de Vanny

Working from a palette of earth tones and deep tertiary hues, André de Vanny seeks to reveal the poetic language of colour. In place of the parched earth, straw grass and ironbark trees of the Australian landscape, we see burnt ochre, sap greens, russet coppers and dark umber, reimagined in contemporary abstract form.

Whilst his subject matter draws upon the illusive qualities of memory and place, his process-based approach embeds a tangible sense of time and history into the work. Starting with large un-stretched sheets of heavy gauge canvas, de Vanny builds multiple layers of colour by staining, folding and drying the works over several months. This allows the natural evaporation process to push pigments across the canvas, generating organic marks that become held within the weave. By working outdoors, dragging, sanding and scoring the surface, he seeks to reveal the subtle vulnerabilities of the canvas, offering up the materials of fine art to the elemental forces of nature.