Cover image of the review

Dale Frank


8 Jul 2017
Neon Parc 30 Jun - 12 Aug 2017

Any presentation of Dale Frank's work could easily be passed off as a prime prop for Instagram ops. His paintings—dazzling in size and colour, slick and hyper-reflective—demand attention and entertain. Yet they are also unsettlingly grotesque and possess an overarching posture of cool detachment. Indeed, his current exhibition at Neon Parc is as much confronting as it is alluring.

Dale Frank, It was a bring your own ground up prescription meds party, 2016, Liquid glass on Perspex.

Neon Parc represents artists who could be considered materially transgressive, playful, absurdist. Frank's work embodies these traits along with a melding of interests in, and experimentations with, the physicality and possibilities of materials. Through an exploration of the potential effects that can be created with various material finishes, Frank expounds and utilises their powers.

This is apparent in the twenty-two works in this exhibition, which also follow closely—both in style and sentiment those included in his first exhibition with this gallery in late 2015, which Memo Review critic Amelia Winata astutely reviewed in Art Monthly as a didactic metaphor for hedonism in contemporary society.

To read for free enter your email address.

Log in with your registered email address.

Memo can continue to publish free, quality, and independent weekly art criticism with the support of our readers. Consider becoming a Patreon supporter or making a donation.

27