Absent Presence

22 March – 15 April 2017

DAVID RALPH

David Ralph reflects on the psychology of architectural spaces and what they say about the people who inhabit them. Recent work has looked at the buildings that artists and musicians colonise and transform. After moving to Leipzig in 2014, Ralph became interested in the derelict structures that artists choose to reoccupy. Ralph finds the ‘theatre of life’ inscribed within the walls of these spaces, and describes his atmospheric, jewel-like paintings as collective portraits of the people who have occupied them over time.

Based between Melbourne and Leipzig, Germany, David Ralph holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts and an MA (Fine Art) from the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. Since the early 2000s Ralph has held solo exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney and featured in curated group exhibitions in Australia, New York, London and Paris. He is a former Sulman Prize finalist and recipient of the Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship. In 2013 Ralph was the recipient of the Australia Council, Visual Arts Board skills and arts development grant, which allowed him to undertake the LIA Leipzig International Art Program in Germany.

Ralph is represented in numerous collections including the Fondation D’Art Contemporain Daniel & Florence Guerlain (Paris), British Airways Collection, National Gallery of Victoria, Artbank, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Warrnambool Regional Art Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Port Philip City Council, City of Yarra Council and the RACV.

David Ralph
Trace (Halle 14 Spinnerei, Leipzig) 2017
oil on canvas
40 × 40 cm