Viewing Internet images of an artist's work does not compare to seeing them in their materiality, or, the being there ness of greeting them as they reveal their face to their audience.
I was privileged today to spend quality time with Marco Luccio who is currently exhibiting a vast array of works at 14 Langridge Street, Collingwood.
I, like many others (the painting is sold), appreciated the large-scale work titled 'Empire Dreaming'. It depicts a powder blue sky and the city's vista graced by golden veil that drapes each building with its soft glow and suggests dream-like states, against what otherwise may look like sentinel towers that watch over the city.
This painting, with is soft, golden glow and demure stance is in contrast to his large scale works that appear like collages as the flurry of movement and harsh, expressive strokes on the surface, make us consider that he was expressing the chaos of the city at ground level. The physical presence, brute energy or resistance harkens back to his 'Struggle' (2023). It's almost as if Luccio has approached the painted surface as though it was a printing plate as the painting is inscribed with the pure vigor of his bodily movements. There is a small painting that reminded me of John Brack's (1955) work Collins Street at 5 pm, because of the ominous, robotic, repetitive behaviour of workers in the Metropolis. This is a powerful body of work, catch it if you can.
