Angela Brennan To his Coy Mistress on a Chinese landscape, 2003, oil on linen, 137.5 x 244 cm

Angela Brennan To his Coy Mistress on a Chinese landscape, 2003, oil on linen, 137.5 x 244 cm

Language has evolved in Brennan's world of primordial colour. The canvases range from small to large, brandishing slogans, sensual scraps of poetry and other language acts. Together, her exhibition is a bower of poetry and allusion.

Exhibition Dates: 29 January – 21 February 2004

In her current exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Angela Brennan presents her new text paintings for the first time in Australia. Language has evolved in Brennan's world of primordial colour. The canvases range from small to large, brandishing slogans, sensual scraps of poetry and other language acts. The textual sources are many and various. Together, her exhibition is a bower of poetry and allusion. She has collected words like materials and transformed them into art. Increasingly, Brennan uses text in a way that is integral to the formal aspects of her abstraction. Words become glaze-like or function as structural elements both in their semantic content and the shapes and architecture of each letter. Language is close to colour in its power to invoke bodily sensation and communicate heady emotion. Brennan's wordplay speaks of pleasure and sensual delight.

Angela Brennan has previously worked principally with abstract painting although her work of the 1980s included figurative painting and installation work. She was recently included in the group exhibition, Good Vibrations: The Legacy of Op Art in Australia, at Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne. She has been short-listed for numerous art prizes. Her paintings are held in every major public collection in Victoria as well as the National Gallery of Australia and numerous private collections both in Australia, New York, Israel and Singapore, including the Mont Blanc Art Collection in Switzerland. In 2003 Brennan participated in an artist-in-residency programme at the Red Gate Gallery at the Beijing Art Academy in China. Angela Brennan has been exhibiting with Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery since 1993. FAITES L'AMOUR PAS LA GUERRE will be her sixth solo exhibition with Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.

Hide Exhibition Text

Angela Brennan Licence my roving hands, 2003; oil on linen; 220 x 178 cm; enquire
Licence my roving hands, 2003
oil on linen
220 x 178 cm
Angela Brennan Why wouldn't I like it?, 2003; oil on linen; 240 x 130 cm; enquire
Why wouldn't I like it?, 2003
oil on linen
240 x 130 cm
Angela Brennan Relaxed & Comfortable, 2003; oil on linen; 137 x 183 cm; enquire
Relaxed & Comfortable, 2003
oil on linen
137 x 183 cm
Angela Brennan Faites L'amour pas la guerre, 2003; oil on linen; 130.5 x 150.5 cm; enquire
Faites L'amour pas la guerre, 2003
oil on linen
130.5 x 150.5 cm
Angela Brennan To his Coy Mistress on a Chinese landscape, 2003; oil on linen; 137.5 x 244 cm; enquire
To his Coy Mistress on a Chinese landscape, 2003
oil on linen
137.5 x 244 cm
Angela Brennan Hotel Villa Archirafi, 2003; oil on linen; 151 x 130 cm; enquire
Hotel Villa Archirafi, 2003
oil on linen
151 x 130 cm
Angela Brennan The sun pours down like honey, 2003; oil on linen; 101 x 90 cm; enquire
The sun pours down like honey, 2003
oil on linen
101 x 90 cm
Angela Brennan Il mondo di cambia, 2003; oil on linen; 90 x 101 cm; enquire
Il mondo di cambia, 2003
oil on linen
90 x 101 cm
Angela Brennan Eschew, 2003; oil on linen; 90 x 100 cm; enquire
Eschew, 2003
oil on linen
90 x 100 cm
Angela Brennan It was not I who looked, 2003; oil on linen; 91 x 121 cm; enquire
It was not I who looked, 2003
oil on linen
91 x 121 cm
Angela Brennan Other fish to fry, 2003; oil on linen; 90.5 x 101 cm; enquire
Other fish to fry, 2003
oil on linen
90.5 x 101 cm
Angela Brennan Cruel irony, 2003; oil on linen; 90 x 100 cm; enquire
Cruel irony, 2003
oil on linen
90 x 100 cm
Angela Brennan Busy, 2003; oil on linen; 50 x 61 cm; enquire
Busy, 2003
oil on linen
50 x 61 cm
Angela Brennan I asked him....., 2003; oil on linen; 50 x 61 cm; enquire
I asked him....., 2003
oil on linen
50 x 61 cm
Angela Brennan Settle for less, 2003; oil on linen; 51.5 x 51 cm; enquire
Settle for less, 2003
oil on linen
51.5 x 51 cm