AL STARK
QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA
Operating outside of conventional art institutions, Al Stark’s artistic practice ranges from folk architecture, spatial design, film, wall painting, drawing, and gypsy tattooing... We could go on. His canvas to date has included numerous public and private walls, a 60 meter lift shaft, intricately made masks, paper, leather, wood and bodies. His work forms a personal universe that explores gender, politics, religion, and an exploration of the human psyche through text, the figurative and a heavy dose of abstract symbolism.
Al has been central figure in the progression of the Melbourne street art movement since its inception in the late 90s, his work, more recently forming abstract narratives in massive colour and symbolism that speaks to all people. It is work that serves as a spiritual offering and transcendence, addressing fundamental questions of what it means to be human and our relationship to nature.
Since completing his studies at Victoria College of the Arts in 2007, Al Stark has maintained a diverse and prolific contemporary arts practice ranging from installation, wall painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing and studio painting. Operating outside of convention, he has been able to follow a unique trajectory that has enabled extensive travel and a living through commissioned painting, tattooing and exhibition practice.
In utilising a diverse range of interrelating mediums Stark has formed a broad visual language that can be applied through an array of different contexts, giving his practice depth and momentum.
His work forms a personal ‘theatre’ that explores gender, politics, religion, nature and more recently the collective anxiety of ecocide and late stage capitalism. It forms an exploration of the human psyche and its relation to the natural environment through landscape, the figurative and a heavy dose of abstract symbolism. Regardless of context or medium it is work that has concern and wants to say something.
Stark has been central figure in the progression of the Melbourne street art movement since its inception in the late 90s. His more recent public works form lyrical narratives in massive colour and symbolism which seek to engage our environmental concerns and our responsibilities to them. This work serves as a spiritual offering and transcendence, addressing fundamental questions of what it means to be human in this point in time.
Currently maintaining an itinerant exhibition and commission based practice, Stark has an extensive list of collectors and clients including Hotel Hotel, Sheraton hotel, Westfield and the National Gallery of Australia. He is currently represented by Backwoods Gallery and Creative Road Arts Projects.
