2012: New beginnings

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Dionysos, Leo Cremonese, Sydney artist

Back in the studio getting my hands dirty

After a short summer break I’m back in the studio with renewed energy and a new focus.

Since connecting with the Dionysian life force energy, in the form of my own sexual energy , my work since 2006 has been the manifestation of this purest of energies which is the essence of painting and everything creative. (See My Creative Process Unplugged).

For the last few years however I’ve been endeavouring to connect with another part of Dionysos. One that is situated outside my body, for Dionysos is everywhere and has many faces.

For this purpose I tried painting at different locations – different places have different energies – and I was able to catch, in my painting, glimpses of such energies while painting in Brazil and on the NSW South Coast, as well as in my backyard.

In such instances I was using more fluid paints such as watercolours and acrylics (also a variety of other more natural media). I would however always revert to tuning into my own sexual energy when working in the studio and in oils.

But in the last few months I’ve been able to experience huge shifts in the energy in me and around me, to the point of being able to feel energy emanating from plants, in the bush but also in the city. As esoteric as this may sound, I’ve actually been able to at times see energy flowing.

I feel I’m learning to open up to energy from outside of my body and have been of late able to take this openness into the studio, while working in oils, and to channel different forms of energy.

While Dionysos is creativity but also madness and destruction, often this new energy I’ve been feeling is somewhat gentler, more nurturing, perhaps more Aphrodiete than Dionysos – even if Dionysos is still present, as he always is, in everything.

I feel this is a very exciting time for me creatively and can’t wait to see what the new work will look like when completed.

Leo, Sydney, 2012

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South American Festival Exhibition

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bondi beach, bondi pavilion, south american festival, sydney art, Sydney artist, sydney events february, sydney exhibition January, what's on

I’m really pleased to kick off 2011 with my show ‘Made in Brazil’ to be held as part of the annual South American Festival at Bondi Beach. I was invited to hold a solo show as part of this popular event by Waverley Council’s Bondi Pavilion Gallery. It would be great to see you at the opening if you can make it on Wednesday February 2 –  from 6pm.

Where: Bondi Pavilion Gallery. Queen Elizabeth Drive, Bondi Beach

When: February 1 to 13

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Here’s what I wrote for the show:

Made in Brazil

A creative exploration of energy

Works in mixed media on paper & oil on linen (2004-10)

I was born in a small town north of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in 1970. I spent my childhood living in the states of Piaui, Minas Gerais and Rio before moving to Bondi Beach with my family in 1983. I finished my schooling in Sydney and went on to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Art from the University of New South Wales. I have successfully exhibited since 1991 and my work has been featured in many publications and is held in private collections in Australia, Europe and South America. I am currently represented by Iain Dawson Gallery in Paddington.

These works were created in three places: my hometown in Brazil; a wild and deeply spiritual place on the NSW South Coast; and in the studio and garden of my workplace in Bondi. Every piece shares my desire to attempt to enrich my work with a more direct capturing of energy from both inside and outside of my body. This could be compared to the mountainsides near where I was born which are solid granite on the inside, but externally teeming with plants, animals, waterfalls, extreme weather. Or a submerged rock platform on the South Coast which is crawling with life: lobsters, crabs, starfish – as well as being the deathbed of the long lines of swell which travel thousands of miles from the south to be finally unloaded upon its ancient volcanic core. Then there is Bondi of course: a hard and frazzled urbanised colony tempered by sweet sea breezes and an inexplicable constant joy de vivre.

This show focuses on energy – the ‘cosmic’, creative energy that is present in our bodies as sexual energy and also in the world around us. It resonates differently in different places. I’ve deliberately chosen works spanning the last six years in which my quest to engage with this energy has been quite focussed. Hence, many of these works are on paper as opposed to the works on canvas which I usually exhibit. For me, paper lends itself to spontaneity and speed and I can move my body around differently – in a dance with my environment.

In these works I have brought the immediate environment into the work in the form of sand, earth, clay, ground rocks. I often worked outdoors– sometimes in the rain so the raindrops became part of the work too. I even tried working in the dark so I could concentrate on the energy rather than the product. I feel that a certain purity and immediacy linked to the energy at the moment has been captured in these works.

The thread that links the places where I created these works – and the energia – is a visceral force which is the core of life itself as understood by the devotees of the Dionysian religion of Ancient Greece. Dionysos tells us that life is energy. As a Brazilian this is something I deeply understand. My heritage culture naturally responds to this life-force in many ways: through Carnaval, capoeira, and the music of Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and many others. It is how we are made.

Leonardo Cremonese, Sydney, 2010

Me channelling the energy of the bush last winter

Work I will be showing

 



Who said Winter was the Quiet Season?

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art review, NY Arts Magazine, Sydney artist

 I’m pleased to say that since this last exhibition there has been a lot of interest and a lot of energy around my work.

 

Amongst other things my website will be featured on NY Arts Magazine’s catalogue of websites to be published in November and is already online on their site. See my profile here.

 

As soon as I get a chance I will also have a profile up on www.artreview.com which is an interesting site to visit or join, if you are into this web stuff. There is a good chance you are; you are reading this aren’t you?

 

As I was saying, there has been a lot of focus on my recently completed work; but I haven’t forgotten what is really important for an artist – the ongoing creation of work. Since May I’ve been deep in the throes of producing my next body of work, which – if my usual work rhythm is repeated this year, should be finished around December. 

 

This year I keep going with my investigations on working by taping into an earthly or Dionysian energy rather than using my conscious mind in the creative process. Early in August I was able to go on a quick trip to a secluded spot on the NSW coast where I completed a couple of important works in this respect.

 

It has been a cold but beautiful winter in Australia. Let’s see what spring will bring.

 

Painting at dusk in the bush

 

My assistant, Gabriel