DECEMBER 2021
(Catalogue essay excerpt by Harry Sanderson)
In early 2021 Luke Kolbusz rented a studio in Perth and began painting full time. This period of sustained concentration came after a few years of more fragmented practice following his graduation from UWA (BA Fine Art), which culminated in his first solo show, BIG WORLD. Ironically, it was only on the success of that first exhibition that Kolbusz’s scope truly expanded: he began working on larger canvases, increased the volume of his output, and made painting his primary vocation.
The muddy forms which had appeared in the BIG WORLD work also came into sharper focus. Those early paintings had consisted of vague figures and abstract shapes, which tended to fade through the canvas like fish in dark water. The new work was bright and lucid: the lines were clear and firm, and bolder blocks of colour began to appear against the washed-out out backgrounds. Kolbusz was developing into an artist who, if not necessarily more confident, was willing to be more upfront about his uncertainty.
This will be Luke Kolbusz’s second solo exhibition since graduation from Fine Arts (UWA) and after his sell-out first exhibition called Big World in 2020.
Sayer, 2021. Acrylic on canvas, 168 x 153cm