David Usher
A brief history
My work is focused on the relationship between environment/landscape and the act of painting. My practice represents a personal metaphor for life experiences. Memories of places, travelling through the landscape and all the adventures along the way translate into a point of departure for paintings of the Australian landscape.
I am actively engaged in disrupting a literal understanding of the landscape, seeking to translate my encounters into both familiar and unfamiliar shapes and forms that generate a level of visual tension between sky and ground, the literal and the imagined. I invite the viewer to rethink their
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A brief history
My work is focused on the relationship between environment/landscape and the act of painting. My practice represents a personal metaphor for life experiences. Memories of places, travelling through the landscape and all the adventures along the way translate into a point of departure for paintings of the Australian landscape.
I am actively engaged in disrupting a literal understanding of the landscape, seeking to translate my encounters into both familiar and unfamiliar shapes and forms that generate a level of visual tension between sky and ground, the literal and the imagined. I invite the viewer to rethink their respective understanding of the environment and potentially redirect their ideas toward new possibilities of what ‘landscape’ might be.
This is defined by not only the importance of place to a personal narrative but also the connections that exist through memory and family to specific sites that I have known during my lifetime.
The Australian landscape is significant as an environment where I have found solitude and a sense of belonging. It is the space in which I can pause, problem-solve, and ultimately re-interpret these experiences through working with clay, mark-making, and painting on a variety of surfaces.
Exhibitions
2022 Shapeshifters… exhibition with Gary Abkin and Peter Berner, Lethbridge Gallery, Brisbane
2022 The Landscape was the Occasion… exhibition with Naomi White, M2 Gallery, Surry Hills, Sydney
2022 A Walk Amongst the Trees… Group exhibition at USQ New B Block Gallery
2021 The Places We Go… Trio exhibition with Naomi White and Leisl Baker, Brisbane
2021 When the Night Comes… Solo Exhibition (curated by Alexandra Lawson) LASSO Gallery
2020/21Satellites… Group exhibition of ALG artists. Alexandra Lawson Gallery, TWBA.
2020/21 Gathering in the Light Collaborative Exhibition with Stephen Spurrier, TRAG, Toowoomba
2020 What if the Sky (Doesn’t fall on us) Group exhibition with Naomi White and Leisl Baker, Brisbane
2020 The Afternoon Mile, solo exhibition, Dunkeld House, Toowoomba, Qld
2020 Boiling Point, group exhibition at Third Quarter Gallery, Brisbane, Qld
2020 Sics Degrees, group exhibition at Umbrella Gallery. Townsville, Qld
2019 Fresh Crop, group exhibition at The Silo’s Gallery Space, Mills Precinct, Toowoomba, Qld
2019 Shadow Lands, group exhibition at Gataker’s Exhibition Space, Maryborough, Qld
2018 In League with the Highway, Toowoomba Regional Gallery (Solo show)
2018 Tricksters, USQ Gallery (Group show)
2018 As Above, Crow’s Nest Regional Gallery (Group Show)
2018 Bodega – More Fun, (with Ian McCallum) RVCA Corner Gallery, Melbourne
2018 Portals and Parables, (with Catherine Parker) Airspace Projects, Sydney
2017 Green Paintings in July, (Solo show) Alexandra Lawson Gallery, Toowoomba
2017 Disco Show, (Group show) Raygun Lab, Toowoomba
2016 Fastplant (Group show) Kontraband Studios, Toowoomba
2016 Bodega - A Fun Place, (collaboration with Ian McCallum) Alexandra Lawson Gallery
2016 The Phantom Show (Group show) Toowoomba Regional Gallery, Toowoomba
2016 Above and Below (Group show) Graydon Gallery, Brisbane
2015 Crawling Through a Summer Night… (Solo show) No Comply Gallery, Toowoomba
2015 Hold Still My Darling Condamine (Solo show) Dogwood Crossing Gallery, Miles
2015 Versus (Group show), No Comply Gallery, Toowoomba
2014 I See a Darkness… (Group show), Graydon Gallery, New Farm, Brisbane
2014 Habitat, (Group show), Dogwood Crossing Gallery, Qld
2014 Places we leave behind…., (Solo show), No Comply, Toowoomba
2014 Group the Children… (‘Endless Waking’) Gallery LA, (Group show) Brisbane, Australia
2014 First and Last, MARS art space, (Group show) Toowoomba
2014 Fastplant Skateboard, (Group show), No Comply Gallery, Toowoomba
2013 Wanderlust (Group show), Landscapes St Vincent’s Hospital, Toowoomba
2013 Soul Kitchen– (Solo show), Raygun Lab, Toowoomba
2012 Bombing the Lotus…, (with Stephen Spurrier) Raygun Lab, Toowoomba
2012 Harlaxton Quarries, (from the Blue Mountains Hotel)’ series… (Solo show) Red Door Gallery, USQ, Toowoomba
2012 Art Journal Project – (Group show), Made Gallery, ‘Block Work’ Gallery, Toowoomba
2011 Wunder Kampf (This is Big Head), USQ Gallery. Toowoomba, Australia
2011 Into the Realms of Madness, Made Gallery, Toowoomba, Australia
2011 Stations of The Cross, St Ives Uniting Church, Sydney, Australia
2011 Some Things Change, Others Stay the Same, USQ Gallery, Toowoomba, Australia
2010 On the Larapinta 2010, Doggett St Gallery, Newstead, Brisbane, Australia
2010 You Do Bad Things To Me….Attic Gallery Space, Toowoomba, Australia
2009 Doggett St Studio Christmas Show, Doggett St, Brisbane, Australia
2009 Currumbin Valley Suite, Doggett St, Brisbane, Australia
2009 Switching Lanes, USQ Gallery, Toowoomba, Australia
2008 On the Heysen Trail, part II, Doggett St gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2008 On the Heysen Trail, S.H.Ervin Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2007 Tasmania, in the Company of Some Major Blow-ins….Doggett St Gallery, Brisbane, Aust.
2007 Devils in Paradise part II, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2007 Devils in Paradise, Dick Bett Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania
2006 Robot Fetish, Doggett St. Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2005 Moreness, Doggett St Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2004 I’m All Ears… , Doggett St Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2003 Tricks of the Night (Fear, Love and Madness) Doggett St Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2002 The Brown Town Paintings, Doggett St Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2001 Death (the Last Taboo), Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia
2001 Out of the Stock-room: Selected Works 1992-2001, Doggett St Gallery
2001 Hillsborough and Dromore (The House Paddocks), Doggett St Gallery
2000 A Briso goes to Burleigh, Doggett St. Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2000 The Horns of Plenty, Doggett St Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
1999 Elephant Rock and Other Seascapes part II, Doggett St Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
1999 Elephant rock and Other Seascapes, Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane, Australia
Public Collections:
Queensland Art Gallery
QUT Collection
QPA Collection
Museum of Brisbane Collection
Artbank
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