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Greg Ades |
Born 1958
Lives and works in Melbourne
Diploma of Art and Design in Fine Art Painting, Caulfield Institute of Technology, Melbourne
Ades' charcoal drawings and oil paintings are at once simple, eerie, metaphorical and dark. They are iconic while retaining the trace of the artist's hand. His works characteristically contain strong elements of 'sardonic humour' and whimsy. Enchanted objects, figures and vistas of his works derive their magic from his manipulation of space and isolation.
"Like Brack, Ades is an artist who dislodges ordinary things from their habitual
place. Despite the distant air of Ades' work, many sparkle with a sense of the artist's dry
humour" from Behind the Doors of Home * Anna Clabburn,
The Age 1998
Images of security that evoke fairy tale fantasies of happiness and idyllic existence, such as the recurring house, are undercut by Ades' subtle sense of foreboding and threatening mood of darkness.
"The prevailing thematic element of my work is the concept of solitude. Within this, I explore the relevancy of memories and aspirations to the accretion of ones existence. In the past my work has explored institutional and domestic structures which threaten, or are threatened by, their peripheral space. By perverting linear perspective, the work obliquely alters and exaggerates isolated, common objects in order to re-contextualize them and create a stringent mood, evoking psychological associations relative to the viewers own personal
experience" * Greg Ades, 1998
Ades has been exhibiting since 1982 with nine solo shows to date in Melbourne and Sydney. Widely collected throughout Australia, Ades is also represented in a number of significant collections such as Artbank Collection, Derwent Collection (Hobart), Allen, Allen & Hemsley Collection.
"the tension between childhood and adult visions of the world exists close to the surface of Ades'
work" * Richard Holt, World Art Magazine, August 1997
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