OPENING NIGHT FRIDAY 14TH OCTOBER 2011 @ 6:30PM

‘Surf City’ is an exhibition of collaborations by artist Luke Taaffe and photographer Ryan Heywood. Navigating omnipotent seascapes and psychedelic surf iconography of the 80′s and 90′s, the distinct styles of each artist merge into powerful graphic scenery. With a mutual respect for surf culture and the ocean itself, Luke and Ryan combine Megaloden shark jaws, lone boats, vast seas and pyrotechnical patternations, into isolated, pervasive and somewhat sinister environments describing a darker side of the surfer’s experience. Luke’s painterly, graphic and vibrant approach perfectly juxtaposes Ryan’s faded and desaturated sea photography, printed directly onto wood. Grandiose in scale, the pieces command attention and immersion. This show pays homage to urban myths and the more emotive aspects of a surf culture left behind in the wake of it’s commercial success.
‘Surf City’ opens on Friday the 14th of October and is on exhibition until the 2nd of November 2011.

1. So this is your first solo show in Sydney? Awesome! Tell us what your preparations are like when you are developing a show of this size.

Yep it is im really excited! Usually for a show I have big ideas and then I end up doing something completely different, That happened with this show too. I always start by editing through my photos to see which gals I want to draw , then I choose my colour palette and start drafting everything up with a final number of images in mind ( usually a very optimistic number) . I’m constantly laying everything out on the floor as I always go off on a tangent and I quite regularly go back to drawings to rework after completing others, and often there are images i never use. I usually scan everything at once ( poor scanning place) , and then colour everything over a couple of weeks, the colouring usually takes me longer than the drawing as I do it all digitally and there is a lot of masking involved. Then there is test printing and printing and framing and freight, the freight is probably the most stressful time for me as I have had many things damaged in the past so now I am the most anal wrapper in the world, It can take around four hours or more just to wrap up all the framed pictures if I’m by myself.

2. What is it about beautiful young sirens that inspire you?

These are all girls I have photographed, sometimes when I shoot them and look through the images there are too many I like so I have to draw them so they don’t go to waste. I’m not sure what it is, I just find the combination of emerging confidence and the somewhat unrealized beauty of these girls fascinating, almost like if they only knew what they had and embraced it they could do anything. I love to watch how a model can suddenly transform once they relax and stop doing what they think you want. I’m beginning to realise that my Mum may have been right when she said that beauty is wasted on the young!

3.  You seem to be moving away from placing your figures against a completely flat background, situating them in a more dimensional space. Tell us about this progression.

I always have a lot of things that I really want to do, I have them in my head and on lists and I always think to myself “next time I’m going to do this” . But the majority of the time these things get eaten up by the usual day to day things such as client work and  time. The move from lone figures to partial scenes is a step towards a step that I have in mind. I still have an obsession with drawing these gals, but at the same time I don’t want to be a one trick pony and there is no point in me repeating what I already know. I want to challenge myself and progress as an artist and so Im beginning to think about space as well as the figure and am starting to increase my colour palette. I hope that my audience will also find fresh enthusiasm in my progression.

4.  Are there any other areas besides your illustrative/photographic work that you would be excited to see your posse of beautiful girls branch out into?

Well Ive just found a spacious studio which will be my first that actually has space for more than one desk! So with my many meters of space I am going to get into painting large scale canvases, Ive been spending some time with Bromley lately and he has been overwhelmingly inspiring!  Ive always wanted to get into textiles so hopefully there will be an avenue for that soon.

Had a peek at your works today at the gallery and they look epic.

Thanks! xoxo

Show opens Friday 5th November 2010 from 6pm – 10pm

Exhibition is on from the 6th November to 3rd December 2010
We are open Monday – Friday 9-5 and Saturdays 12-3.

The exhibition opens Friday 18th December from 6pm.

The show will be open until Friday the 22nd January.

Gallery is closed for holidays from December 23rd Until January 5th.