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.

Says André de Vanny of this work, "These paper works were born out of a period of exploratory free drawing where the act of mark-making became a kind of call and response. Initial marks where made instinctively, in willow charcoal, without any prompting, subject matter, or reference.

"As shapes and figures began to emerge, the process evolved as an interplay of colour, gesture, and form. The coloured ground beneath draws on the tradition of imprimatura (a thin, transparent stain of colour applied to a primed canvas before painting) and is the result of multiple acrylic washes which have stained and creased this thin vulnerable paper. In this way the drawings begin from a base material which already carries the marks and stains of time."