Nick Leahy
Nick Leahy is a young Brisbane based artist and primary school teacher. He is currently creating miniature postcard sized gouache paintings of petrol pumps and old buildings. He will have an exhibition in the gallery in September entitled "Postcards from South-East Queensland".
These "postcards" explore another view of the essence of South East Queensland, away from the glossy tourist brochures and the usual stereotypes of subtropical beaches, skyscrapers and housing estates.
As South East Queensland grows and the influx of rural people to urban centres continues, the small communities and their abandoned buildings take on a rustic charm. Old service stations and their disused petrol pumps in particular embody this phenomenon in a visual form. Urban renewal in the city has also had an impact on suburban streets with old architecture of suburban businesses like butcher shops being replaced by modern shopping centres.
Nick Leahy's postcards focus on these old rustic elements. His most recent work the concept of the mapping of the landscape.
