Page 159 - Famous

AMANDA VAN GILS

Lives and works in Melbourne, Australia
w w w.amandavangils.com

Australian artist Amanda van Gils draws her work from her continued interest
in the landscape as a metaphor for the ongoing nature of human experience.
Her recent paintings represent an altered state of consciousness, located
somewhere between fiction and reality.
The evolution of van Gils’ artistic concerns is evident in the artists’ progression
to the gradual depiction, rather than inference, of the figure in her works. In
earlier works the humanless landscapes captured seemed hauntingly empty,
however remnants of memories, people or occasions appeared to linger. In
these works van Gils, revealed her interest in the individual interpretation of
the external world and the relationship between people and place. Through
the absence of prescribed meaning, even the most desolate of locations
may hark personal memory or association. The gradual introduction of the
figure into her compositions further exposed her interest in the psychological
connection between people and place; the depiction of the road referred to
the everyday journeys of an individual, making apparent traces of human life
in even the most desolate of regions. Over time the figure has evolved into a
more significant characteristic of her work. Increasingly apparent too is the
depiction of the atmospheric transition from night to day. In works such as
‘At the close of day’ (2004) figures traverse through the sky in surrealistic
fantasy. Capturing the moment where an individual is suspended between
dream and reality, the images reflect a sense of disillusion. As hypnotic as they
are beautiful, the paintings are meticulously rendered and highly technically
achieved, proficiently describing the artists’ intentions while also allowing
for individual interpretation. In more recent work, such as “The biggest jump,
ever!’ the work shifts into the realm of fun and play; while the brooding
romantic sensibility is still apparent this is often overridden by a pure sense of
fun. Recalling childhood, the images in van Gils’ more recent paintings hover
on the threshold of reality and imagination where anything is possible.
As with the earlier work, van Gils continues to depict figures engaged in
activities outside of their expected setting, causing the viewer to question
relatively ordinary occurrences. The figures occupy indistinct space and time,
and while the imagery is recognisably ‘real’ the figures are somehow dislocated
from reality as if interpreted through the prism of childish imagination.
Van Gils works within the longstanding tradition of Australian landscape
painting, it might be suggested that her work brings a new energy to the artistic
study of the Australian landscape and its association to its inhabitants.

AT THE CLOSE OF DAY, 2004 OIL ON LINEN 30X24 IN. /76X61CM. 
SOMERSAULT, 2005 OIL ON LINEN 9½X7½ IN. / 24X19 CM. 
THE BIGGEST JUMP, EVER!, 2005 OIL ON LINEN 50X40½ IN. /127X102 CM. 
BELLY FLOP, 2005 OIL ON LINEN 9½X7½ IN. /24X19 CM. 

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