Melbourne-based visual artist Ash Keating to open solo exhibition at the Shepparton Art Museum in March 2023. 

Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) is proud to partner with artist Ash Keating to present ELEVATION, a new solo exhibition that interprets the landscape of Yorta Yorta Country/the Goulburn Valley through Keating’s signature abstraction style.  

ELEVATION presents a new series of large-scale paintings, which form an interconnected series of panoramas; a direct response to Keating’s memory and photographic imagery from site visits to Yorta Yorta Country to observe the landscape, horizon lines, and weather patterns from an elevated viewpoint. Keating’s affinity for the region’s landscape formed at an early age; the artist recalls memories of accompanying his grandmother – a pilot – in light-aircraft flights over Victoria’s high country.  

Since 2015, Keating has developed a distinctive and specialised methodology for creating paintings with atmospheric compositions. Working with a technique he has named Gravity System Response (GSR), Keating applies paint to surfaces through an airless sprayer, augmenting areas by erasing or breaking down the paint through the application of water. The resultant works are fluid in motion, textured with layers of varying viscosity. 

The works in ELEVATION mark an expansion in Keating’s practice – where his previous GSR paintings were born of studio improvisations and abstracted to project the illusion of landscape, Keating imbues this new series with a realism that brings them closer to the true landscapes he observed during his visits to the region. Keating further adds to the effect through his diffusion of the painted layers with constant coatings of water, softening the paint to mirror the patterns of weather that alter the landscape and one’s experience of it. The canvases loom large, creating a captivating, immersive experience for the viewer. 

Melinda Martin, SAM CEO, says of the exhibition: 

“It’s an honour to present a new body of Ash’s work at SAM. His career has charted an impressive trajectory, and Ash was keen to work with us because of his personal connection to the region. Ash has a singular practice, and it’s a delight to see the beauty of our landscape translated through his technique and transformed into something truly spectacular. We are lucky to have been able to have Ash create new work for SAM before he embarks to Mexico for a large project after the exhibition opens at SAM.” 

Ash Keating: ELEVATION opens at SAM on Saturday 18 March 2023 and will be showing until 18 June 2023 with free entry. 

On Sunday 19 March, the community is invited to attend the official ELEVATION exhibition opening. The event will be free and held at 2.00pm at SAM. Bookings can be made via Trybooking: https://www.trybooking.com/CGJXD. 

About the artist: 

Ash Keating (b. 1980 Naarm/Melbourne) is a contemporary visual artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. His practice is multidisciplinary, ranging from site-specific installations, outdoor murals, performance, to large-scale and domestic scaled canvases.  

Keating holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) in Painting from Monash University, Melbourne; and a BFA Honours from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne. Since 2004, he has exhibited and produced outdoor murals extensively across Australia and internationally including at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Adelaide Festival, Adelaide; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago, Chile; Seoul Art Space and Artsonje Centre, Seoul, South Korea; and Christchurch Art Gallery, New Zealand. 

His works are held in numerous public and private collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney; Monash University Collection, Melbourne; and Artbank.