The art practice of Ian Lever is observational and pictorial. Veering from the observed to the created image, he looks at people and the ways and shapes and actions of their bodies as figures in a frame.

This current work MELODRAMA looks at scenes from a gay relationship informed by experience, observation, and anecdotal reports from friends and lovers. It is a darker look at some of the realities of letting people into your life. The things we can put up with to get what we want are inevitably connected to our own fate.

Some theft – A little extortion – And too much violence.

MELODRAMA transports us via pictures of colour and angles to a suburbia of the inner city.

Trained under Pam Hallandal at Victoria College Prahran Campus in Drawing, Ian varies between the subtleties of light and shade in large black and white chalk works and a more intimate scale of painting. Originally painting in gloss enamel on board this has for several years been replaced by gouache on paper as a less toxic method.

Lever completed his Bachelor of Fine Art (Drawing) in 1983. He has participated in a number of group exhibitions including the Victorian College of Art Graduate Exhibition (1983), an exhibition at Keyhole Gallery, St Kilda (1998), Gallery 5, St Kilda (1999) and Journal Cafe, Melbourne CBD (2013). He Lever was curated by Constance Zikos into Back to Prahran a group exhibition at Swinburne College in 2006. He had been a finalist in the Linden Gallery Globe Art Prize in 2004 and Shepparton Art Museum Drawing Prize in 2005.