STORIES of myth and mayhem were featured alongside the Mallee, captured though paint, last Friday night as the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery opened its new exhibitions.
Internationally recognised artist Marco Luccio made the trip to Swan Hill for the opening of his exhibition Tales From The Greek.
Tales is an artistic response to author John Hughes’ eight narrative adaptations of Greek myths and tragedies.
Recreating some of the classic Greek myths in his own way – featuring works on large canvases, found objects, drypoints, etchings, charcoal drawings, collagraphs, ink, mixed media, pencil and monotypes – Luccio used real models to pose for his works in order to make them lifelike.
“I love the idea of being challenged to do something I may have never done otherwise,” Luccio told The Guardian.
“I had to almost pretend they were real stories to get inside them, that was the only way I could really do it.”
Having shown this exhibition at other galleries and letting the respective galleries curate it themselves, Luccio said he particularly liked the way Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery director Ian Tully had put the works together.
“Ian has grouped it in certain ways and it’s a little bit different – he has been really conscious of making the images tell the story,” Luccio said.
“I think that’s it’s really great that you have got someone like Ian here who is putting on important shows – from my perspective, I know the shows he puts on, and he really knows the importance of art to the community.
“It’s quite humbling to think that somebody thinks it is important enough to give you an exhibition.”
Luccio shared the spotlight with local Swan Hill artist Paula Starrs and her exhibition, Our Mallee… Our Home.
Using broad gestural brush strokes in an impressionistic style, Starrs has captured the beauty and hidden gems of the Mallee through landscapes, local shops, railway stations and even roadside fruit stands.
“These bold and gestural works are painted with a passion, an exuberance, that engages ethereally with the viewer,” Tully said of Starrs’ work.
Marco Luccio will be back in Swan Hill on Saturday, March 4 for a Walk, Talk and Workshop.
He will walk and talk through his exhibition, followed by his workshop, Draw and Discover – Love, Myth and Mayhem, where he teaches participants how to sketch, record and discover new ways of enhancing their own artistic abilities.
Both Luccio and Starrs’ exhibitions will run until April 23.
For more information, contact the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery on 5036 2430.
