Press release from TM Publicity
A self-confessed cinema tragic, Sydney artist James Powditch has parlayed his obsession into a successful career with his latest solo exhibition with a movie theme, ADAPTATION: New Work from Novel to Screen to open at Australian Galleries, Paddington, on October 12.
The exhibition presents a series of works based on classic films adapted from classic novels, each rendered with Powditch’s iconic constructions of found objects and heavily influenced by Czech and Polish film posters from the 1960s and 70s. The works include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Heart of Darkness (Apocalypse Now), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Bladerunner), Black Robe, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Marathon Man, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Godfather, The Manchurian Candidate, American Psycho, Lolita and Lord of the Flies.
The son of artist Peter Powditch, James claims to have spent his entire youth in a beanie with lego in front of the tele: his favourite movies – anything with Kim Novak or William Holden, preferably both, Picnic being the ultimate. His major work for the HSC was a Super 8 film and he spent the year sneaking into R rates horror movies instead of the pub. He began a BA in Visual Arts at City Art Institute (now COFA) majoring in film, heroes – Scorsese, Kubrick, Scott, Coppola before dropping out and starting work for the Ray Hughes Gallery.
James Powditch has held solo exhibitions since 1997 and has participated in numerous group exhibitions. He has been a past finalist in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes, the Dobel Prize for Drawing, was selected for the ABN AMRO Emerging Artist Award in 2005 and has regularly appeared in the Salon de Refuses and Year in Art exhibitions. He was joint winner of the Blake Prize for Religious Art in 2005 and the winner of the Mosman Art Prize in 2007. His work combines elements of sculpture, assemblage, painting and architecture and is heavily influenced by cinema history.
His first studio was in his home – the Martin Luther King mural building in his beloved Newtown which he later helped save from development. And he began set building and props making for the Sydney Dance Company, the Sydney Theatre Company, the Australian Museum and others – skills that are apparent in the three-dimensional aspects of ADAPTATION.
James’ first show was with friend Rodney Simmons (painter) at TAP Gallery, an artist-run space in Darlinghurst, followed by a solo exhibition in 1999 at the Dickerson Gallery, Woollahra, of sculptures inspired by the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright.
James love of cinema is evident in previous exhibitions Widescreen at Dickerson Gallery, followed by Technicolor and Cinemascope 2001. A joint show with his father Peter Dowditch – The Powditch and Powditch Show – in 2005 was followed by a solo show, Boo, at the Ray Hughes Gallery.
He was a finalist in the Archibald (with a portrait of actor Aden Young), Wynne and Sulman prizes in 2008 and in the Archibald (with a portrait of his dad artist Peter Powditch) and the Wynne in 2009.