Dale Frank

Dale Frank is one of Australia’s most prolific and prestigious painters. At 16 years of age he was awarded the prestigious Red Cross Art Award. By 21 he was having solo shows in Europe and New York. In 1982, he was included in the 4th Sydney Biennale. His participation in the 42nd Venice Biennale in 1984 cemented his international reputation.

Frank works in a form of material abstraction. He pours the paint onto the canvas and varnishes over it. The result being an application of paint that almost deludes the viewer, the liquid, fluid paint appears immobile, suspended in the canvas. Interestingly, over a period of several days the varnish removes any trace of process from the work, and subsequently removing any trace of the artist. The dynamic spontaneity of the works illustrates Frank’s utter mastery of his medium. Frank’s use of overtly long sentences as titles adds to the ambiguity of the works. The artist refutes any notion of literally meaning attached to these works instead discussing them in the view of an anti-linear narrative and therefore broadening the meaning of a contemporary landscape.

Solo exhibitions of the artist include Dale Frank/Scott Redford (collaboration), ISNT Gallery, Brisbane (1995); Gin Gin Paintings, Bundaberg Art Gallery, touring Toowoomba Regional Gallery, Tamworth City Gallery (1998); Ecstasy - 20 Years of Painting, curated by Sue Cramer, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Dale Frank, Studio Foyer Exhibitions, Sydney Opera House, Sydney (2003) and Some Boring Paintings, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (2008).

Among his extensive international solo exhibitions include shows at the Project Art Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (his first solo exhibition at the age of 21), Galerie Tanit, Munich, Germany, Studio d'Art Cannaviello, Milan, Italy, Triagono Modern Arte, Naples, Italy, Marianne Deson Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York and Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, California.

Frank has been included in several group exhibitions including 4th Biennale of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (1982); Recent Australian Painting, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (1983); Australian Visions, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (1985); New Purchases - Recent European Art, Museum of Modern Art, Chicago (1986); Medium Density: Contemporary Australian Drawings and Photographs, Australian National Gallery, Canberra (1992); Virtual Reality, 1st Biennale of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (1994); Art Forum Berlin, Berlin Art Fair, Germany (1997); Moral Hallucinations: Channelling Hitchcock, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (1999); Monochromes, University Art Museum, The University of Queensland, Brisbane (2000); Parallel Lives: Australian Painting Today, Tarrawarra Biennial,Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria (2006) and Neo Goth: Back in Black, The Art Museum, University of Queensland (2008).

The artist is held numerous public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, USA, ABN Amro, Sydney, First National Bank of Chicago Collection, Chicago, Illinois, Trans-Art Collection, Milan, Italy and Zurich Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland.

Dale Frank lives and works in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales and continues to be at the forefront of the Australian and international art scene.