David Marsden

David Marsden’s exciting “Lost Jetty (and other oddities)” exhibition opened at Blenheim Gallery Saturday 4 November 23. 

Early this year QVMAG provided a significant survey exhibition for Penny Mason and David Marsden as a homage to their significant career as Launceston artists and educators, and their life partnership. The show was called Mason : Marsden.

David’s work is abstract expressionistic in style, but are referenced to occurrences in his life and his visual experiences.  The Lost Jetty title refers to the Tamar River and the early jetty’s along its foreshore and how over time they have become disused, abandoned or still there.

Lost Jetty the largest painting appears to have a jetty-like shape floating along, unanchored, in a kind of chaotic space. Is it really a jetty? says David

Of course, the names of other works in the show such as Pollen Puff, Fickle Winds, Charred, Slip Slide and Black Jetty may only be as permanent as those labels on garden tools which weather away or become faded and unreadable through use.

The works are rich in texture and in some cases dimensional, with a built-up surface as part of the process of painting and drawing and scraping and scratching; things like the jetty emerge and, sometimes disappear; and something else may emerge, held in suspension for the viewer, a bit like the surface of a bubble.

It is hoped you may be interested in viewing the show which remains open until 22 November 2023.