We congratulate artist Joshua Yeldham for taking out the Holding Redlich People’s Choice Award for his landscape painting Phantom Limb – Smith’s Creek. The work is included in S.H. Ervin Gallery’s current exhibition ‘Salon des Refusés’ which began in 1992 to highlight outstanding artworks which were not selected by the Archibald and Wynne prizes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Yeldham is known for his intuitive practice that gives form to the interconnectedness of people, nature and the ineffable. Given this multiplicity of inspiration the artist works with a range of mediums, some which have kinetic or even musical qualities – nurturing an idiosyncratic dance between materiality, subject and concept.
His works show reverence for the environment, so it’s heartening and little surprise to discover Yeldham’s inspiration;
‘Phantom limb is a painting that I made after the Sydney bushfires. It portrays for me the long-lasting endurance of nature and her resilience. The fallen branch now holds an empty space that time will affect as she does beyond our human understanding. It is the thing we can rely on, the innate progress of nature’s will to expand.’
If you’re in Sydney head to Observatory Hill to experience the show at S. H. Ervin Gallery, on view until Sunday, 29 November, 2020.