Wendy Dixon-Whiley: Macrocosm

March 24 – April 28, 2021

Exhibition Launch Wednesday March, 24 6-8pm

Guest Opening Speaker Kath Inglis, Jeweller and Head of Jewellery Studio, Jam Factory

Wendy Dixon-Whiley will be drawing on the gallery walls at the launch. This is a one off live drawing event.

The work shown in this exhibition is the result of a process of reflexive practice. An unplanned 'pictorial script', the work is always a product of the time, place and context in which it was created. As I work within the space as I make the work, forms change and evolve in response to my mood. Depending on where I stand as I work, some elements of the mark making become less important and others re-assert their presence, they morph in to one another and highlight new perspectives. They fill and overwhelm the space with their presence. In accessing an internal ‘visual universe’ as I make the work, I am engaging in a form of imaginative play; a type of ’stream of consciousness’ painting. In doing this I aim to take the viewer on a journey of making their own associations as I break down the barriers between my own internal and external worlds. 

In the use of black lights in the space, the line work is taken one step further and becomes an expression of a void, making the negative white space a work of its own. This provides the viewer with the opportunity to encounter how the drawings change and disappear from view depending on the lighting and their position. 

BIO:

Wendy Dixon-Whiley is a Visual Artist working in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. With a Bachelor of Illustration Design and Master of Visual Art and Creative Practice, Wendy has participated in multiple group and solo exhibitions in Australia and overseas. Wendy is most often found working from her studio at the Hahndorf Academy in South Australia. She is best known in the Adelaide Hills for her large-scale street art projects and her works are held in private collections in Australia and internationally.

Wendy Dixon-Whiley’s energetic but considered works are executed in multiple mediums and scales as she works to find the best modes of expressing an internal visual universe of figures, marks and symbols. Tracing her influences back to 80’s street art as well as graphic illustrative styles from 90’s popular culture, Dixon-Whiley domesticates at times dark social themes through absurd and nonsensical forms. Her practice incorporates drawing, painting, installation and experimental methods to bring these ideas to life. Dixon-Whiley distils her imagery through a process of working with unbroken and unhesitating mark-making through to more detailed, illustrative works.