Sutton Gallery is pleased to present 100 Years, an exhibition featuring a new video work by Arlo Mountford celebrating the 100 year anniversary of Kasimir Malevich’s Black Square.
In 1915 Kasimir Malevich produced Black Square and presented this dominantly influential painting in an exhibition of Russian avant-garde art titled Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0.10. The title of this renowned exhibition suggested an ending, but it in fact ignited a century of colour field and abstract practice. Black Square is commonly referred to as a ‘zero point’ in the history of painting and a catalyst for the colour field and abstract tradition.
Progressing in chronological order, each minute of the moving image presents an appropriated work from the corresponding year. An accompanying multichannel sound track references the broader art and social context of the relevant period, acting as an immersive but also distracting timeline to the 100 years since Malevich’s Black Square.
100 Years is an abstract animation by Arlo Mountford in part paying homage to Suprematism and Malevich’s legacy but also drawing on the varying philosophies and concepts which have led to the plethora of abstract works made since; from De Stijl to Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism to Lyrical Abstraction, and Constructivism to Abstract Photography.
Arlo Mountford completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at the Victoria College of the Arts in 2002 and currently lives and works in Melbourne. Recent solo exhibitions include: The Copse: parts 2 and 3, Centre for Contemporary Photography, 2015; Galaxy Express, Sutton Gallery, 2014, The Copse, Sutton Project Space, Melbourne, 2013; The Vanishing Point of History, LUMA | La Trobe University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2011; Animated Video Art, Shepparton Regional Gallery, Victoria, 2010; The Hacienda must be Built, The Art Centre, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 2009; The Folly, Centre of Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, 2009; The Flux of the Matter, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, 2007; and Universal Language – alternate reality, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, 2005.
Group exhibitions of note include: Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, 2013; Forever Young: 30 Years of the Heide Collection, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2012; Unguided Tours: Anne Landa Award for video and new media arts, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2011; 21st Century: Art in the First Decade, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2011; NEW010, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2010; and 21st Century Modern: 2006, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. Mountford has held studio residencies in Tokyo, the Netherlands and at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne. In 2007 he was awarded the ABN AMRO Emerging Artist Award and in 2015 he completed a major commission for the Australian War Memorial.
100 Years is Supported by CCP.
Artist’s profile
