James Guppy is a contemporary Australian artist living in a small coastal town in northern NSW. His primary medium is acrylic but can vary from painting to collage/assemblage. The narratives, which dominate his work, use the traditions of western figurative painting to explore contemporary issues with a surreal and absurdist twist. These dramatic art works examine social issues through the lens of western art history. They reference artists and traditions such as J.M. Turner, Piero della Francesca, Dutch Baroque painting and the Pre-Raphaelites.
Guppy is intent on examining our secret inner lives. His relentless gaze fixes on the domestic, love and power, the body and our physical identity, gender, sexuality and taboos. His art ranges widely across the private dreams and nightmares of life in the twenty first century. His work does not fit easily into the categories of western art. He is a figurative painter, a flower painter, a magic realist, but his paintings are contemporary and fetishistic. He is a surrealist and an absurdist who deconstructs the traditions of western art to create intelligent engaging artwork that can haunt and transform the way we subsequently see the world around us.
JAMES GUPPY
James Guppy is a contemporary Australian artist living in a small coastal town in northern NSW. His primary medium is acrylic but can vary from painting to collage/assemblage. The narratives, which dominate his work, use the traditions of western figurative painting to explore contemporary issues with a surreal and absurdist twist. These dramatic art works examine social issues through the lens of western art history. They reference artists and traditions such as J.M. Turner, Piero della Francesca, Dutch Baroque painting and the Pre-Raphaelites.
Guppy is intent on examining our secret inner lives. His relentless gaze fixes on the domestic, love and power, the body and our physical identity, gender, sexuality and taboos. His art ranges widely across the private dreams and nightmares of life in the twenty first century. His work does not fit easily into the categories of western art. He is a figurative painter, a flower painter, a magic realist, but his paintings are contemporary and fetishistic. He is a surrealist and an absurdist who deconstructs the traditions of western art to create intelligent engaging artwork that can haunt and transform the way we subsequently see the world around us.