George Gittoes: Nothing is Enough

August 19 – December 20, 2013
Robert B. Menschel Gallery
Schine Student Center
Gallery Talk: Wed, Oct 2 at 4pm

George Gittoes gives us a powerful, close up response to conflicts best known to us from the nightly news – famine and peacekeeping in Somalia, de mining after civil wars in Cambodia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, the elections in South Africa which brought Mandela to power, eruptions to the peace process in the Middle East, and the Kibeho massacre in Rwanda, from which the work he developed at Light Work extends from.

Nothing is Enough synthesizes Gittoes’ artworks by integrating many of his works together into a single image. These works are inspired by the, photographs, writing, paintings, and drawings that precede these works. The “synthages” meld the horrific events described and depicted of human atrocity in a way that dances between all of the media that Gittoes uses in his work. Hints of drawing painting and photography deny a quick read of the work. The images in this exhibition are the first of many to come in what has been a growing and active exploration of new works made from histories that are not ever told too many times.

George Gittoes is one of Australia’s foremost figurative painters, filmmakers, and photographers. For the last decades Gittoes has been working in areas which are usually the reserve of journalists. His work catches the complexity of individual circumstance, of human frailty, empowerment and survival, against a backdrop of world issues. They are images about both “the moment” and “the big picture.” Taking a global approach to his work as an artist, Gittoes works from many locations throughout the world, and bases himself in studios in Sydney and New York. He presents his work in multi media exhibitions which include photography, drawings, paintings, film, and video installations.

www.gittoes.com