Sean Crooks ‘Looking for This’

Current Exhibition

Oct 5

16 October - 18 October

Sean Crookes uses painting to explore the essence of relationships and domestic life. Following his solo exhibition “Generations” a three-year study of intimate family interactions, his latest exhibition, “Looking for This,” extends the investigation outdoors, examining the evolving dynamics of life beyond family, and explores narratives of community, belonging and place. It aims to engage viewers in a thought-provoking experience, encouraging them to reflect on their own stories while finding common threads within human relationships.

Sean Crookes work offers an innovative lens through which viewers can explore the complexities of human existence and relationship to place. This exhibition will captivate audiences and contribute to the cultural and artistic fabric of our community.

“As an artist, I explore how painting can investigate ideas of relationships: interpersonal, inter-generational, familial, and human connection with lived spaces, the land, and environments. My paintings incorporate symbolism and metaphor. The Australian yellow everlasting flower Xerochrysum bracteatum, a robust perennial, is significant to me, and prominently features in recent works. My last solo show “Generations” at Grey Street Gallery (August-September 2020) examined domestic life, familial relationships, and how these change over time. Spawned as antidote to the extended lock-downs, this latest series of works, begun in 2022, leaves behind the intimate domestic spaces featured in “Generations”, and transports the viewer to the re-imagined, wild, outdoor places I love to visit and yearn for. My friend is a volunteer for a youth organization in regional Queensland, he goes by the name Emu. The characters in this collection inhabit imagined landscapes, informed by experiences in Australia’s national parks, state forests, and outback areas. These works also focus on aspects of painting itself. Formal elements such as support, ground, pigments, binding medium, composition, and methodology are considered as substantial as visual representation and storytelling. The ground and method of construction are deliberately exposed, emphasizing the nature of the works as paintings.”

- Sean Crooks

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