Andrew Hmelnitsky
Andrew Hmelnitsky's paintings embody an exuberance and a joie de vivre that is palpable.
Andrew has a mixed Ukranian and Irish heritage and comes form a family of musicians. He has studied traditional painting techniques including egg tempera, 15th and 16th painting methods, has travelled widely and has studied art in Spain. He has an impressive history of highly successful one-man shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Newcastle and his first solo exhibition in Brisbane will be held in the gallery in March 2008.
Andrew's current series of festive new paintings continues to celebrate the confidence and jubilation of daily life with his idiosyncratic playful and fresh technique.
These abstract works exploring colourful shapes, cogs, lines and words concern the everyday mission of getting from A to B, from one point to another. He achieves this by playing around with the idea of handedness, the left and the right, the back to front and the upside down. This apparent disfunctionality somehow always comes out right in the end. There is an optimism and a forward-looking from the backward-seeming.
Collectors of Andrew's work say they are continually uplifted when they view his work and simply love living with it.
His latest exhibition in the gallery will run from 1 - 30 March 2008.
