Hamilton (‘Ham’) Darroch is a contemporary artist whose work is a reflection on 20th-century modernism and 21st-century life. His creative output is driven by an unwavering intellectual curiosity, rich use of colour and masterful technical ability informed by a practice that spans more than two decades. His large-scale, site-responsive wall paintings, works on canvas and paper, series of wall-mounted objects, and performative projects are at once conceptually rigorous, lively and uplifting. They feel familiar in that they recall moments of modernist art history, yet they are fresh and full of the potential of a new relationship.
Fairground marks not only Darroch’s first exhibition at Onespace but also in Brisbane. This selection of paintings and sculptures derives from the artist’s deep interest in the visual tradition of hard-edge abstraction of the 1960s and 70s, and of incorporating a phenomenological sense of dynamism within a pictorial space through geometry, tone, perspective and scale.
Artwork: Ham Darroch, Fairground, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 198 x 198cm.
Image: Brenton McGeachie. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace.
