 | Although the surfaces of Neil Frazer’s paintings owe something to the American abstract expressionist movement of the 1950s, he has developed a deeply personal approach to the medium. “The oddly compelling nature of Neil Frazer’s body of work is not solely the result of his handling of paint. The power of the works hinges on his creation of a duality of spatial illusion and material literalness on a scale that is all-involving. The picture plane is rendered elusive, replaced by optical recession and tactile fact, resisting a complete assimilation of the image. The works all operate on this frontal/recessive contradiction, evoking simultaneously thick, constructive curtains of paint and veiled depths.” (1)
In Frazer’s large-scale oil paintings, paint is often laid in thick impasto so that it protrudes from the canvas. “Frazer works his canvases on the vertical, attached to the wall, and applies the paint in a variety of ways, including rags, brushes and his own hands. Often in the later stages, he flicks the paint with his fingers straight from the tube onto the canvas, the twist of his wrist creating regular, bright loops of colour which articulate the surface of the painting, erupting away from the receding nebulous tones of the background.” (2)
Neil Frazer: “I’m not trying to make paintings that solve world problems or hold out a mirror to society, but I believe painting has the power to provoke thought and feeling and can make a positive contribution”. (3)
Frazer was born in Canberra Australia in 1961 and moved to New Zealand in 1965. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch in 1985. He attended the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, New York, USA in 1986. He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts, Sydney, Australia in 2000. Neil has been exhibiting since the early 80s and has had over 40 solo exhibitions. He has received many premier awards and fellowships in New Zealand and Australia, including the 1992 Frances Hodgkin’s Fellowship at the University of Otago. His work is included in most major public, corporate and private collections in New Zealand including the National Bank, Fletcher Challenge and the Robert McDougall Art Gallery.
(1) Lisa Beaven, ‘Neil Frazer Recent Paintings’, Art New Zealand 66, Autumn 1993.
(2) Felicity Milburn, ‘Neil Frazer: Stretched to the Limit’, McDougall Art Annex, 1996.
(3) Neil Frazer quoted in Michael McHugh ‘Opposites Attract’ FQ Entertaining, Winter, 1998.
| |
