Concrete Playground

Despite their lack of figuration, Dale Frank’s varnish paintings tell a story. The story of his process — layers of transparent varnish and pigment clashing and separating, creating whole new psychedelic phantasmagoria. Don’t be fooled. These seemingly random configurations, which will encourage different reactions (at his last show, one friend remarked the works heightened his sense of taste, while another quickly remarked that the colours mixing together reminded him of vomit), are actually the result of Frank’s intensely controlled working environment; dust is kept to a minimum, temperature and humidity are constantly monitored, as is the positioning of the canvases.

When Frank started his varnish oeuvre, there were myths of great pockets of wet paint exploding out from his works onto boardroom floors. But fear not; a poncho won't be required. The varnish Frank now uses takes only three weeks to dry.

Dale Frank has been showing at Roslyn Oxley9 for near on 30 years, and his work is held in every major public gallery in Australia, as well as in private collections throughout Australia, America, and Europe.

Definitely visit this show, and be sure to pick up a price list and carefully read the title of each work as you view them. At times seemingly mundane, at others overtly profound, Frank’s titles, though on first inspection rather ambiguous, are as undeniably psychological as his paintings are physical, and will greatly inform your subjective impression of each work.