What is it Gallant Steed? Tap Dance Cityis a tempered enquiry into cultural bias between dangerous, erotic and at times hilarious visual interactions. Using little to no filter when focusing on subject matter enables Lance Delary-Simpson to sample visual, theatrical and lyrical tensions. Ranging from the seductive flow, or minimal floral arrangement to the flight pattern of a common housefly, meticulous considerations of composition are made throughout each of the works. Employing hardedge and graphic interplay indicative of abstract minimalism, Delary repurposes the stagnancy of this style in his painting by way of absurd, anthropomorphic distortions of form, shape and line with a certain erotic-precision. The two-part title divided into a question and answer directly relates to a conversation between the viewer and the host. What is it Gallant Steed?’is an adapted question asked by Death to his pale horse Mortis with the ensuing doom of a task at hand (from ‘On a Pale Horse’ by Piers Anthony). The latter part, Tap Dance City being the name of a Japanese trained racehorse. This exhibition considers a pale notion of success, death and everything in-between grounding it within a visual interaction.
Lance Delary-Simpson is a Melbourne-based artist. In 2014 he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts- Painting, from the Victorian College of Arts, Melbourne. In 2014 he was awarded the Sydney Canvas Company Award for his Graduate Show. He was also awarded the PROUD 2014 award from Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne. In January of 2015 he was commissioned to create a mural presented by and near the site of The Victorian College of the Arts as part of the SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival. Recent exhibitions include For a great BUICK call 555-7617 (Solo exhibition) Fort Delta, Melbourne, 2015; Summer Projects II (Group Show) Boom Gallery, Newtown, 2014; Drawbacks (Group Show) Fort Delta, Melbourne, 2014: Dead Rubber (Group show) Harmsworth Street Collingwood, Melbourne, 2013.
Cheap Pop / 5 – 28 Nov /opening fri 6 Nov 5:30 -8pm
see details of artworks here