At the close of day, 2004
Since completing post graduate studies at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2000, van Gils has exhibited extensively throughout Australia. In the past 2 years van Gils has begun exhibiting overseas, including a solo exhibiton in New York during 2005 and group shows in Berlin durign 2005 and 2006. These shows will be followed by Solo Exhibitons scheduled for late 2006 in Berlin and Paris.
Van Gils's imagery generates from a romantic sensibility of landscape painting and people’s relationship to the landscape.
The dark beauty of aloneness and the period between dusk and dawn when the ideas of spirit of place and memory are most prevalent, form the basis of her recent works.
In these figures drift, through the watery sky either in a state of freedom or yearning. The landscapes and roads below are familiar; they are roads we have convceivably driven down and are part of our everyday lives. Likewise, the figures are ordinary people traversing the various planes of existence. Small and familiar - this surprising juxtaposition transforms the overly familiar into something strange and new.
Finely executed, the artist's love of the technical aspects of picture making is much apparent.
Amanda lives and works in Melbourne with fellow artist Vito Manfredi.
A really big jump, 2005
FORTHCOMING SOLO EXHIBITIONS
13th September - 26th September GALLERY twenty-four / BERLIN
Krossener Strasse 34, 10245 Berlin
4th October - 17th October GALLERY twenty-four / PARIS
30, rue Durantin Paris 75018
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2005 Play Time -Rex-Livingston Art Dealer, Sydney, NSW.
2005 New Work - Montserrat Gallery, New York, NYC, USA
2004 Drifters - Stella Dimadis Galleries, Collingwood, Vic.
2003 Irresistible Detours - Panthecnicon Gallery, Dayelsford, Vic.
2003 Twilight Travels - Tilt Contemporary Art, Ferntree Gully, Vic.
2003 Mistakenly - Metropolis Gallery, St Kilda, Vic.
2003 Postcards to an unknown lover - Universal, Hawthorn,Vic.
2002 subvisible – red gallery, North Fitzroy, Vic.
2002 Cars Like Us – LaTrobe Street Gallery, Melbourne, Vic.
2001 Parameters - Eisenberg Gallery: The Victorian Museum of Experimental Art, Brunswick, Vic.
RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2006 Sommerwende International Festival, Berlin, Germany
2006 Linden Postcard Show - Linden Gallery, St Kilda, Vic.
2005 Sommerwende International Festival, Berlin, Germany
2005 MLC Aquisitive Art Exhibition, MLC, Kew, Vic.
2005 Synthesis - Tilt Contemporary Art, Ferntree Gully, Vic.
2004 Lasting Impressions - Eltham Wiregrass Gallery,Eltham, Vic.
2004 MLC Aquisitive Art Exhibition, MLC, Kew, Vic.
2004 Affordable Art Show - Tilt Contemporary Art at Melbourne Exhibition Building, Melbourne, Vic.
2004 Group Retrospective - Tilt Contemporary Art, Ferntree Gully, Vic.
2004 Wyndham City Contemporary Art Prize - Werribee, Vic.
2003 Stella Dimadis Galleries Christmas Show - Stella Dimadis Galleries, Collingwood, Vic.
2003 Summer Salon - Gallery 314, Richmond, Vic.
2003 The Hutchins Art Prize 2003 - The Long Gallery, Salamance Place, Hobart, Tas.
2003 The City of Banyule Works on Paper Art Award, 2003. Ivanhoe Receptions, Ivanhoe, Vic.
2003 The Darebin LaTrobe Acquisitive Art Prize 2003. Bundoora Homestead Arts Centre, Bundoora, Vic.
2003 Nillumbik Prize 2003 - Eltham, Vic.
2003 The Foot Square Exhibition - C.C.A.C. Richmond, Vic.
2003 Red Group Show - red gallery, North Fitzroy, Vic.
2003 Wyndham City Contemporary Art Prize - Werribee, Vic.
2003 The Smorgon Steel Contemporary Art Prize – Williamstown, Vic.
2003 St Kilda Art Supplies 10th Birthday Show – Metropolis Gallery, St Kilda, Vic.
2003 Linden Postcard Show - Linden Gallery, St Kilda, Vic.