Richard Dunlop whose exhibition “Less is Morte: Recent Still Lives” is currently on display at the James Makin Gallery, has received two glowing reviews in this the first week of the show.

Loretta Hall wrote a major piece “Colour splash a celebrity hit” which appeared on Tuesday 22nd of September, page 38 in the Extra section of the Herald Sun. Below is an excerpt:

“Dunlop’s show is the third in James Makin’s large new gallery, which Makin opened in June after moving from cramped quarters in Armadale. Makin says he is thrilled to have the space to exhibit Dunlop’s body of work.

Dunlop’s hybrid style of landscape, still life and botanical themes also hangs on the walls of private collectors who are public figures, including Hugo Weaving, Naomi Watts, Mick Doohan and, recently, Adam Gilchrist. ‘I’m told that (musician) Keith Richards owns one too,’ Dunlop says. ‘People like their privacy and dealers like to keep their clients private. The only reason I happen to know that people own my paintings is that they get photographed with them in the background or they get excited and want to tell me.’

Dunlop’s paintings are held in private and public collections in Japan, Switzerland and Australia and he is showing his work next year in London.”

(Loretta Hall “Colour splash a celebrity hit”, Herald Sun, Tuesday September 22, 2009, p 38.)

The other review features on the Artshub website and is written by Louisa Marks, appearing Wednesday, September 23, 2009. Below is an excerpt of the review:

“Dunlop’s works have been described by the artist himself as dwelling on themes of collecting, vanity, death, opulence, decadence and hope. The aptly named ‘A Brief History of Love and Death’ (2009) the largest and most commanding of the canvases in this exhibition, is a symphony of colours, tones and movement. The flowers in the centre of the canvas seem to swell upwards in groups, just as humans grow physically and emotionally together, while fallen flowers lie horizontally beneath them, succumbing, also like us, to their fate and ephemerality; beauty is disrupted.”

(Louisa Marks “Richard Dunlop – Less is Morte: Recent Still Lives, James Makin Gallery” Artshub, Wednesday, 23 September 2009.
http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news.asp?sc=&sId=179244)

Image details:
Richard Dunlop
A Brief History of Love and Death, 2009
oil on linen
183 x 200 cm