Maryanne Wick: A Sense of Place and Time
Exhibition: 9 April – 22 May 2022
Opening: Saturday 9 April 2022, 2pm – 4pm
A Sense of Place and Time features paintings and drawings created by Maryanne Wick during her time living in Spain from 2017-2019. Based on ancient Iberian artefacts unearthed from the archaeological site of Cerro de las Cabezas (‘the Hill of the Heads’), her series of still life compositions reveals the beauty of imperfection created by the impacts of time.
Maryanne Wick is a visual artist born in Sydney, Australia and now based in the Macarthur region. Graduating from the National Art School in 2001, she left Sydney in the same year to live and work as an artist in South Korea and China. The five years immersed in North Asian art and culture, and her travels since, have proved invaluable to her practice and continue to influence her work today.
‘My work aims to capture a sense of place through the still life subject. This series is about capturing a sense of place based on the impacts of time. From the origin of each artefact, through its discovery, excavation, restoration and display, I like to think that these works are the next step in the artefact’s journey’.
Exploring the diversity of the still life subject and following the different paths along which the subject can take her, Wick accepts that her compositions will always be evolving.
Maryanne Wick is a visual artist, born in Sydney, Australia. Graduating from the National Art School in 2001, she left Sydney in the same year to live and work as an artist in South Korea and China. The five years immersed in North Asian art and culture proved invaluable to her as an emerging artist and continues to influence her work today.
Absorbed in the cultural, historical, and natural riches of her experience, Wick will intuitively make a connection to her ‘sense of place’ or surroundings, then quietly respond. Primarily a tonal painter, she draws attention to the exquisite and the unusual, through her painting, drawing, printmaking and collage. Hand-made ceramic pieces, collected objects, artefacts and observations made in nature, form and flavour her compositions.
In recent years, Wick’s still life paintings have included the endearing antics and the plight of native Australian lizards and birds. Her work from Spain (2017 -19), based on ancient Iberian artefacts, reveals the beauty of imperfection, created by the impacts of time. Exploring the diversity of the still life subject and following the different paths along which the subject can take her, Wick accepts that her compositions will always be evolving.
Wick has lived and worked in Sydney, London, Beijing, Seoul, Hong Kong and in Spain, where she was appointed resident artist at the Municipal Museo de Valdepeñas in Valdepeñas (Ciudad Real) in Castilla La Mancha. An awarded artist, including winner of the 2015 Korean Art Prize, she has held solo exhibitions in Australia, South Korea and in Spain. Her work has been exhibited in over eighty group exhibitions and is held in private and public collections, both in Australia and internationally.
