Based in Melbourne, Australia, Alex Slattery is an oil painter whose works serve as windows into the vast tapestry of human experience, capturing the nuanced interplay between innate animalistic traits and the inherent aspiration of our higher selves.
Working with paint in a playful, sparing and tender manner, Alex’s paintings are cultivated by the nostalgic reminiscence of his childhood growing up in a small coastal town in NSW. Beginning with a poem, his process moves through from written articulation to collage, pencil or ink drawing and finally oil paints, which he continuously wipes back to retain a sense of fluidity captured in the drawing phase.
Alex holds a BA - Fine Art (RMIT University) and has refined a meticulous understanding of paint as a medium through time spent working with Australia’s premier oil colour producer, making much of the country’s oil paint by day and then experimenting with it by night. His body of work — capturing nostalgic scenes of Australian coastal life and the character present in the people and place — represents a study of humanness and those inherent characteristics that both connect us to and disconnect us from one another. It is an exploration of behaviour, especially our desire to be playful, and the way we reminisce on bygone times.
Alex has taken part in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney, is the recipient of numerous art prizes and has his work adorning the walls of private collections in Australia.