Audiences do not view art as a static piece of on the wall art in the gallery anymore. Of course there are the gallery dwellers that make the occasional trip into the white cube, but as a whole we now use our computer screens to navigate endless virtual galleries.
This month at Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne-based artist Michael Staniak responds to this phenomenon by utilizing materials that are not classically associated with painting, producing results that feel closer to digital prints in his new exhibition History Suspended.
Staniak says this digital age demands that every artist find their own online presence, whether they make art about the internet or not, because that is where their work will inevitably end up. In his own work, he weaves old practices with new technology by painting the landscapes of Baroque painter Claude Lorrain and “re-editing” them in a graphic and modern style.
This combination of new and old is as much about Staniak’s interests as it is about modern art itself. Currently undertaking a Masters of Fine Art at VCA on top of running Richmond art space Paradise Hills, Michael says that an interest in the past and present is important in developing a personal style.
Michael Staniak
History Suspended
24 November – 17 December 2011
GALLERY II
Nellie Castan Gallery
12 River Street South Yarra
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