Kim Carpenter - WILDE: Life & Fantasy
A glorious show of 19 new paintings inspired by Oscar Wilde's most fantastical stories & tumultuous life.
Opening drinks Saturday 2 April 3- 6 pm.
Kim Carpenter W I L D E: Life & Fantasy
Starting out as a student of John Olsen at his Bakery Art School in his teens, and two outstanding solo shows at the then renowned Holdsworth Galleries, he followed up from the age of 19 with a highly-distinguished and multi-award-winning career at the top of Australian theatre.
Significant leadership roles include Founder and Artistic Director of Theatre of Image, Artistic Consultant for The Disney Corporation Asia-Pacific, Head of Design NIDA, Co-Artistic Director Nimrod (with John Bell and Neil Armfield) and Resident Designer at both Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company.
Having closed Theatre of Image after 30 successful years, Kim now jumps back to his first love - painting and drawing - but, as always, as a visual story-teller.
FROM THE ARTIST
“I have dipped into Oscar Wilde's world and responded to the most indelible imagery from three timeless fantasies Wilde wrote for the eternal child:
The Selfish Giant with its beauty and tenderness. The Young King with its controversial homoerotic flavour. And The Happy Prince with its observations on the disparity between the rich and the poor.
In contrast, other works show Wilde's addiction to beauty and the male form: those 'marvellous boys', the private London all-male tea parties and the extravagant indulgences and delights of homosexuality found in Italy.
The show includes The Ballad of Reading Gaol - the dramatic epic poem of love and suffering in which Wilde brilliantly brought to life the injustice of his prison sentence.
In Wilde's Life and Fantasies lies the paradox that makes him a fountain of inspiration for all our imaginations to call upon – not just mine.”
Kim Carpenter AM