Collectivo
2021 - 140x140cm oil on canvas.
Collectivo is a delicate concoction of the familiar and extraordinary. Masked and faceless characters are seen merry-making to the sound of trumpets, tiptoeing, crouching, and dancing across the canvas. Mischief is in the warm evening air and the viewer is invited to join the surreal narrative. Piper's universe of vivid colour, pattern fusions, and sketched line expands before the viewer. Lucid layers of oil and charcoal celebrate the artist's signature style, while mythical themes stay loyal to his favoured subject matter.
Cornah Willis -2021 Arts writer
This painting has such immediate tension. The tension between the waves and the sand, with a striking contrast between the yellows and the blues. The swimming instructor seems to be enforcing some authority, maybe the bearer of some unwelcome advice or affection. His rigid stance, lather of sunscreen and tight cap seem tense against the swimmers loose curves and bare skin. It seems like she wants to be left alone, angling to exit the frame and be free of him - to melt into the warmth of the sand.
Grace Cram 2021 – Interior Designer, Artist
The swimming instructor
2021 - 50x50 cm oil on canvas.
Exhalation, romance and freedom are paramount in the new body of work by Brock Piper. Here Piper has invested a personal ethos into his work whereby he invites the viewer to become a integral part of the painting… theatricality one is
Presented with fervent emotion, The artist has skilfully caressed both paint and subject matter to allow the immediacy when viewing these new works… it is his intention to strip away the barriers of pre meditation whereby works are created without hindrance of thought rather fuelled by the ‘sheer act of making’, this act takes us on journey of discovery and I invite you to dive in and remain open and submit to the luscious paint work offered!!
George Raftopoulos 2021 – Artist
A difficult hero
2021 - 80x80 cm oil on canvas.
The Arrival
2021 - 100x100 cm oil on canvas.
Brock Q. Piper has created a jungle, a place where his characters, frozen in a sudden moment of interaction. Not merely content to focus on plants but the creatures that wonder amongst them.
His dark jungle skilfully illuminated with washes of white light radiating from the mans torch, also giving hints to a vibrant and colourful and possibly friendly creature on the right. Is this a friendly chance encounter or something more sinister?
Telly Tuita 2021 – Artist
The Botanist
2021 - 80x80 cm oil on canvas.
Shadows dance and play under festive lights and the dice is rolled in a game of chance. We step into a scene of garden party antics or perhaps a round of Russian Roulette? For our hopeful protagonist 'The Optimist', we do not yet know where the cards will fall. The bravado and playfulness of our unsteady hero is certainly evident and yet their precariousness is also palpable, as the punters watch on. We too tread lightly with our hero on this gauntlet of life.
Josie Piper. 2021 –Textile Designer
The Optimist
2021 - 140x140 cm oil on canvas.
Brock Q Piper’s artistic adaptation of the mythical Portuguese caravel holding beneath its decks the scoundrels, wayfarers and deviates of another time as it journeys across shallow waters in strong winds no doubt, gathering great speed in search of safe harbour is delightfully rich in symbolism. Piper is not here playing the role of historian. Nor is he sitting in judgement of his character’s exploits, judging their culture according to our own standards of what is right or wrong, strange or normal. For Piper truth and moral values are not absolute, but rather relative to the persons or groups holding them. Their experiences encapsulate what is important to them, what the world means to them. From here we come to narrow on and better understand the things we share that make us human.
These stories delightfully come to life through Piper’s abstraction and strong mark making. Long admired for his ability to capture the essential elements of his figures, free of superfluous detail, Piper breathes life in this series of paintings by taking risks, judiciously using a wide, bold colour palette. Gentle washes of vibrant colour offer a surreal feel and sense of depth to the images, without overwhelming and distracting from his wonderfully drawn figures, delineating the central figures to the fore. Piper’s painting ‘The Wager, of faceless cardplayers clearly with much more at stake than at first apparent is raucously playful, comic, colourful and superbly executed.
Piper is an accomplished artist. More importantly, his paintings cleverly bridge the past to the present without becoming cliché. His imagery is dramatic and deliciously engaging. Piper paintings stand out among many of his peers in this genre, which in itself is an extraordinary feat in a hyper-competitive art market.
Andrew McIlroy 2021 – Artist, Arts writer
The wager
2021 - 100x100 cm oil on canvas.
The traditional still life narratives of sustenance, priorities in life and the everyday are spot lit in this striking work by Piper called Still Life With Commentary by a low hung lamp. Many of the works in Piper’s new exhibition self-illuminate with painted lamps and torches, encouraging a self-reflection – not only for the viewer and by the artist but importantly for the artwork itself.
Piper has very successfully made new works that speak about themselves clearly and directly to the eyes and gut of the viewer, with no need for the academic insistence so regularly demanded for wordy commentary or explanation. These works are a return to a visual story-telling and commentary through paint.
Waldemar Kolbusz 2021 – Artist
Still-life with commentary
2021 - 50x50 cm oil on canvas.
Tambien
2021 - 100x100 cm oil on canvas.
The abject guide
2021 - 80x80 cm oil on canvas.
Lyricism, movement, still life, figuration and...a peacock...
Intermittent Islanders breathes colour, movement and music. The interior and exterior planes intersect in a vibrant cacophony, the musicians playing in a brightly lit room or exterior. Suddenly, a peacock emerges stage left, what is he doing here? Is this a scene from a contemporary Garden of Earthly Delights? The papaya, sliced open ready to be devoured, the musicians meal ruined by the feathered vocalist, casting a dominating and uneasy presence. A purposeful play with perspective, one musician seemingly larger than the other, that is until you look at their feet, he is short and robust compared to his comrade, also seemingly leaning in past the taller of the two, perhaps to ensure that his guitar strings are heard over the blast of the clarinet.
A colourful narrative, surreal poetry, everything so well lit, bright and loud. Yet some dark, mysterious and sinister elements lurk amongst the vibrant greens, swirling blues and citrus tones.
Nik Uzunovski 2021 – Artist
Intermittent Islanders
2021 - 80x80 cm oil on canvas.
Brock Q Piper continues to elevate his practice by pursuing a fusion of pure abstraction with the abstraction of literal form. This work contains both, and so brings with it a measure of absolutes, effecting a confusion and fascination which ultimately energises the artwork.
His method seems to be a combination of a considered schema and reactive painting, as If an idea is held momentarily with intent, before being allowed to transform into the unexpected through the process of discovery and adjustment.
The composition is characteristically bold, yet overwritten by a curiously searching line – perhaps a fragile and questioning counterbalance to what he has built; an allusion to impermanence and the ‘moment’ rendered symbolic.
Shades of Whiteley can be found in the ambiguous contours, which fluctuate between sexuality and the more prosaic, emblematic of a mood constantly trying to establish itself.
Ever present are the considered elements of pattern, robust shape and vitality, along with a texture which appears to be built upon through several returns to the canvas. Layers of transparent colour and varied media have been added and subtracted and every move is visible: the work is truly a visual representation of the journey of image-making.
Ben Howe 2021 – Artist
The amateur sailor
2021 - 50x50 cm oil on canvas.
This painting is at first glance instantly recognisable as one of Brock Piper’s work. A rich tapestry of texture and colour, his art conveys layers upon layers of storylines.
Sirens is the Calm before the Storm.
This image is full of quiet energy.
The four female forms , emanating the full force of Mother Nature and beckons us to take notice or else…
In this age of reckoning, who must pay the price for all of mankind’s sins, pollution, disease, violence
The sirens have had enough
Stephanie Têtu 2021 – Artist
The Sirens
2021 - 80x80 cm oil on canvas.
When the lights go out, you better check your pockets. When the lights come back on, Piper’s characters are looming at your table. But don’t worry, it’s just nutmeg. A late night poker game with unsaid rules, a tin soldier and his familiar. The brush strokes urgently, hastily, violently distort the picture and a few faint patterns leave little to hang on. But don’t worry, it’s not avocado.
Henry Trumble 2021 – Photographer Artist
Nutmeg
2021 - 50x50 cm oil on canvas.
Brock's enthusiasm and flair with painting is both infectious and inspiring.
These forms exist on multiple layers, drawing the viewer's eye into the image while at the same time forcing the viewer to take in all the amazing patterns, shapes and linework that sits on the surface of the outermost layer....creating a kind of push/pull effect that is very hard to look away from.
Now in his current work 'Light as a feather', we have a more figurative approach with what looks like humanoid forms (I get a psychedelic ancient egypt vibe) at a funeral? Some other kind of ritual/ceremony? Knowing Brock's love of art history, this suggested narrative could be a reference to another painting or artist. I'm looking forward to finding out. However, I'm much more excited about seeing 'Light as a feather' in the flesh, as I know that when I stand before it; I'll become lost in those previously mentioned multiple layers of painterly elements.
This also highlights the importance of seeing Brock's paintings in 'real' life....photos are flat and boring....they don't have the subtle luminous colour shifts and multi layered line work that guides your eyeballs around the composition. And don't get me started on balance, look how balanced everything is.
Ben Guy 2021 – Artist
Light as a feather
2021 - 140x140 cm oil on canvas.