David Austen
Underworld
Dundee Contemporary Arts
152 Nethergate, Dundee
DD1 4DY
23 March - 09 June, 2019
Underworld; a major survey exhibition exploring the breadth of David Austen's artistic practice will be presented by Dundee Contemporary Arts in March 2019.
Since the 1980s Austen has worked as a painter, sculptor, printmaker and filmmaker. The stylistically diverse elements of his work come together to reveal an often dark yet endearing vision of the world. The artworks in this exhibition, from oil paintings on heavy flex canvas and delicate watercolour works on paper to suspended sculptural objects and cinematic film projects, create an otherworldly space inhabited by Austen's strange and lovelorn characters.
With sources as varied as 19th century literature, poetry, ancient myth and film noir, the impetus of Austen's work often derives from his immediate surroundings. There is a generosity in his approach to art-making, a delight in the unexpected, and a disarmingly nuanced understanding of complex human emotions.
Underworld seeks to create a pace for viewers to journey through, punctuated by the artist's poetic musings on the known world, the imagined world, the bright celestial heights above us and the shadowy, unknowable depths below.
