Lot 133

James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne

Dobell Prize for Drawing 2012, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 11 April - 18 May 2014 (finalist)

"In contrast to this charged pathos expressed outwardly through the body, Bradbeer's Imago drawings contain a more internalised, meditative focus. All the works from this series feature a frontal view of a head suspended in an often black, vacuum-like space. Drawn on an impressively large scale, the epic planes, peaks and valleys that comprise the Imago faces allows for each part of the whole to be examined in isolation, where the abstracted nature of these figurative drawings can be fully comprehended. The unwavering gaze that looks through the viewer and serene facial features that characterise these works are evocative of Eastern deities in their sublime and idealised countenance. Yet Bradbeer avoids direct cultural reference and its subsequent symbolic implications, maintaining instead universality in form and metaphor." (Marguerite Brown)

Courtesy The Artist