Guy Maestri

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When I look at a painting I search for the hand that made it, then I retrace the stroke to the energy at the nervous core of the gesture. When I look at a photograph I search for the light that illuminates detail and renders solid the truth of the image. And so what do we do with a painting that is blatantly born from a photograph? Search for the hand, search for the ‘facts’ or surrender to the apparent fusion of both?

Guy Maestri’s new work slings a tight rope across both aesthetic realms. And yet, for those looking closely his key themes and obsessive passions: ecology, human folly and the violated landscape are all still there, beating beneath a deceptively cool exterior. Departing radically from his well known marks, the febrile “painty paint” lines and scumbled surfaces of his gestural abstractions these works have an aquatic surface, submerged within veils of varnish, patina and memory. For those who come looking for the artist’s hand, they’ll find it, but in a different form. This show, described by Maestri as “a liberation from his own touch”, was sourced from hundreds of images found on Google, the search engine that has come to symbolize all we know about visual and cultural saturation. And in that spirit the work struts a topical dance, magnifying the main icons of man, myth and beast out of the anti-profound congestion of a stamp sized j-peg.

In Christ (Across the Universe) Maestri did all he could to deconstruct and possibly decompose the famously placid image of Jesus. “The face”, the artist observes, “that everyone believes they know”. Sourced on the internet, stencilled onto the canvas and then organically obliterated with layers of solvent, Maestri’s process was anti-romantic but the result still glowers like a symbolist dream. Pop art explored the idea of a mass-produced masterpiece by making the profound plastic and the plastic profound, but in an age of completely saturated and simultaneous media the question of what endures through history and what simply erodes away seems more poignant.

Through the body of time certain images remain indelible, almost senseless to the repetition heaped upon them. Cliches survive because of their power rather than their vacuity, and it’s the same for icons. In the 11th century perhaps the only graven image a western human might know in their lifetime would have been Christ. Painted on board, glittering in stained glass, melting into a frescoed wall. And today we might skim a thousand images in the space of an hour. How can anything grip, compel or move us in that soup? What sticks? That’s the question begged by the melancholy magazine fragments dredged up and glazed over with a meticulous hand by Maestri. Some of his paintings speak of dead technologies: an underwater explorer from the 1980’s Google Earth (Faith or Fear) that looks as obsolete and cumbersome as a Victorian era pearl diver or a witless astronaut crashing to earth Brave New World. In Melt the mottled surface of the painting resembles a clouded aquarium glass and a very ancient photograph at the same time, and so the polar bear’s gaze is all the more vulnerable and our own all the more mute. The idea that a reality such as global warming can only ever be one concept in the vast library of issues vomited by electronic media and pulped by print everyday adds to the overwhelming sense of futility presented by the information age. There’s no doubt that the relics of science, religion and nature dredged up in ‘Google Earth’ paint many facets of a ruined collective dream. An earth navigated, mapped, colonized and disseminated, very readily seen, but not heard.

Anna Johnson 2009

Guy Maestri’s studies encompass a range of sciences and systems: for instance, he explores the way fragile bird life is displaced into ever more unlikely settings, and the gradual elimination of certain features from the natural world. What effect might this have on the way we visualize the world? Would we go on imagining a creature that has long disappeared? Or would the vanished characteristics pop up elsewhere? His interest is in the way native and introduced species interact, and how these relations might be depicted within visual fields.

Immediately, the spread of these paintings is evident: in the extended wings and floating blossoms, and the drifts of colour which fall through the frame. Yet a number of small, specific objects are found within the epic scope of these works. In Turf Wars, a herd of oxen is hatched within the wing-span of a giant bird: they nestle into its side like a group of tokens. Along the edge is a series of knots of red paint, as dense and precisely coded as signatures – although they loosen slightly towards the end, as if the signee had lost sight of his own handwriting. Lower down, the image of a pig appears – and then to its right, another version of a pig, except that this one is a rudimentary sketch: it suggests something horned and primal, rather than a real animal. It’s as if, in the space between one design and the next, the artist forgot what a pig looked like and had to re-draw one from scratch.

Memory, or the lack of it, is a major theme for Maestri – to the extent that even birds and domestic creatures run the risk of being forgotten. In several paintings, the initial, confident tracing of a shape appears to be lost through repetition. Maestri has drawn critically endangered animals before, and many of his works suggest the attempt to evoke something which has been wiped from consciousness. In Field Studies II, a sun-like disc casts rays onto a flower and a colourful study of a bird. However, in the painting’s darker section, the artist has misplaced his image of the bird. He sketches a few, imperfectly formed talons, but each one resembles a bird less and less – he is unable to summon the creature they represent. Eventually, the struggle to recall the bird is abandoned, and he settles for drawing a wrench instead. He also etches an elaborate, diamond-shaped design – perhaps a stencil for an ancient mask or cameo. This shape is drawn, with slight variation, again and again – as if the lost object could be recaptured through frantic sketching.

Field Studies III shows a full, blossoming lotus; underneath it, animal parts are scattered like petals. Again, the artist goes through the evolutionary attempts at creating hooks and claws; he shows a talon grasping a stone, as if to jog our memory of its function. A row of beaks is drawn across the base – and by coincidence, one of them happens to match up with an amorphous bird-body. Voilà – a bird has finally been produced, albeit by trial and error. For Albatross, Maestri uses a mass of black and white strokes to create a “sea” of sorts, so that a series of shapes is buoyed upwards. These are the tentative studies of birds we’ve seen earlier, but in this picture, something new arises. Maestri has painstakingly tried to recreate the beak of an albatross, but over time, that vision has disappeared; the lines of his design have lengthened, and the extruded shape resembles a lounge or an architectural drawing more than a creature.

Why are birds everywhere? In this show, bits of birds are dispersed like leaves, and invade even the most abstract sections of the canvas. However, the appearance of beaks and wings is less surreal than, say, floating human heads or mouths. The bird is a tactile creature: its gnarly hooks are shown gripping bars and branches. Its closed claw and the surgical precision of its beak represent multiple attempts to grasp a concept – even as memory fails and details are lost in obscurity. Yet birds are also airborne: although they have the ability to pick out minutiae, they are models of space exploration. As such, they are key to Maestri’s understanding of how fields work: between the glimpses of wing-span and oceanic space, an intimate detail is carved out.

Lesley Chow, 2008

Solo Exhibitions
2009	Tim Olsen Gallery. Sydney Cat Street gallery, Hong Kong
2008	'Natural Selection', Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney 'Field Studies', Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
2007	Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney
2006	Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong Tim Olsen Gallery Queen Street, Sydney
2005	Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2004	Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney

Selected Group Exhibitions
2009	Archibald Prize, Winner, Art Gallery NSW, The Domain, Sydney - touring various Regional Galleries throughout Australia
	The 2009 Blake Prize, National Art School, Sydney
	Taronga Artists Camp Charity Auction/Exhibition, Sotheby's, Sydney
	Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, Adelaide Perry Gallery, PLC School, Sydney
2008	Dobell Prize For Drawing, Art Gallery of NSW 'Four Visions', Melbourne Art Fair 2008, Royal Exhibition Building 2 x 2, Tim Olsen Gallery Annex, Sydney Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne
2007	Dobell Prize For Drawing, Art Gallery of NSW ‘Momento Mori’ Blkmrkt Gallery, QLD Paddington Art Prize, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney
2006	Melbourne Art Fair 2006, Royal Exhibition Building Paddington Art Prize, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney
2005	Dugongs of Hinchinbrook II, Kickarts Gallery, Cairns
2004	Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney
2003	Young Artists, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney
2002	Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney
	'Recent Paintings', Stairwell Gallery, N.A.S.
	'Discipline', Cell Block Gallery, N.A.S.
	'Sculpture 14', Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
	Salon des refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
	Cheltenham Studio Exchange, U.K.
2001	Sculpture 13, Robin Gibson Gallery
	Salon des refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
	New York Studio Exchange, N.Y.C.

Awards and Grants
2009	Winner, The 2009 Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of NSW
2003	Commission Award, St Vincent's Hospital
	William Fletcher Fellowship
	Highly Commended, Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship
	Paris Residency Award, N.A.S.
2002	Highly Commended, Brett Whiteley Travelling
2001	People's choice, Salon des refuses
2000	Acquistion Award, 'Artists on Norton'

Qualifications and Training
2003	Painting lecturer, Mosman Evening College
2002	B.F.A. Honors Painting, National Art School, Sydney.
1999	Anatomical Studies, Julian Ashton Art School,Sydney
1998	Life drawing, Ku-ring gai Art Center, Sydney
1997	Life Drawing, Willoughby Workshop, Sydney

Media and Publications
News.com.au - Artist Guy Maestri wins Archibald prize for portrait of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunipingu, March 6, 2009, Anon Smh.com.au - Yunipingu portrait wins Archibald, March 6, 2009, Louise Schwartzkoff Theage.com.au - Archibald Honour - March 6, 2009, Anon The Australian online - Yunipingu portrait wins Archibald - March 6, 2009, Ashleigh Wilson Perthnow.com.au - Archibald Winner - March 6, 2009, Anon ABC Online - Archibald Prize Winner Announced - March 6, 2009, Oscar McLaren The Sydney Morning Herald - Weekend - So long, des refuses: ninth time lucky for artist, March 7, 2009 - Louise Schwartzkoff The Daily Telegraph - Reluctant Subject Wins Prize - March 7, 2009, Elizabeth Fortescue The Weekend Australian Financial Review - Blind Faith at Airport Brings Fame - March 7, 2009, Katrina Strickland ABC 702 Sydney - Guy Maestri wins archibald prize and economic downturn, Radio interview, March 7, 2009 - Simon Marnie The Weekend Australian - Vision of Blind Singer Wins the Archibald - March 7-8, 2009, Ashleigh Wilson The Weekend Australian - Big's Not Beautiful for a Mug on a Massive Scale - March 7-8, 2009, Christopher Allen The Sun Herald - Favoured Face: The Eyes Have It - March 8, 2009, Matthew Benns Adelaide Advertiser - We've Got The Best - March 8, 2009, Patrick McDonald Guy Maestri wins archbald prize Daily Liberal - Mudgee-born artist Claims Archibald - March 10, 2009 The Wentworth Courier - Persistence Pays Off - March 11, 2009, Menios Constantinou The Daily Telegraph - Exhibition: Archibald - March 17, 2009 Maitland Mercury - Archibald Exhibition To Visit - March 19, 2009, Emma Swan Redcliffe & Bayside Herald - Learn from Maestri Win - March 25, 2009, Richard Lancaster Inner Western Suburbs Courier - Arts - April 1, 2009 Australian Jewish News - Archibald for Portrait of an Aboriginal - May 1, 2009 GQ Australia - The Old Masters of Tomorrow - September 1, 2009, Virginia Wilson Male Australian artists profiles: Guy Maestri, Luke Sciberras, Tim Summerton, Paul Davies - total of 9

Guy with his Archibald Prize winning portrait of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. Photo courtesy Jo Negrine-Aiello

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Annex & Works on Paper - 2 x 2 - Group Exhibition

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Artist Features

2009 Archibald Prize winner, Guy Maestri talk to ABC1 Sunday Arts. An intimate discussion of his work and process from within his studio. Examines his early aspirations, the Archibald win, and the direction his work is taking. Includes interviews the artist's father and fellow studio artist, Celia Gullett.

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