These are pieces from my favourite Dunedin-based artist, James Bellaney. Bellaney is a fourth year painting student at the Dunedin school of art. Stylistically, Bellaney’s work is reminiscent of the intimacy felt in Surrealist automatism, American action painting and Abstract Expressionism. This is evident from the quality of his work, which has the appearance of being somewhat considered, yet spontaneously gestural and improvised. Bellaney’s creative process involves methodically moving the paint by means of splashing, staining, stumbling and dripping across the working space. Often it appears as though he is using seemingly random tools, as opposed to the more traditional paint brush.Upon viewing him work, his figure is reminiscent to that of to Hans Namuth’s photographs of American Abstract expressionist, Jackson Pollock. Bellaney, not dissimilar to Pollock and other artists, such as transgressive artist Vito Accohi, Australian artist Dale Frank, Paul McCarthy, Pablo Picasso (particularly the film featuring him paint on glass) and many kinetic sculptors use art to convey ranging emotions and subsequent reflections upon their individual lives. However Bellaney’s pieces have a quintessential spiritual quality, which I believe is apparent because of his Maori heritage. This sense of spirituality I would liken to not only his works kinetic flow of energy (a reference to music and surfing), but also the strongest of his influences comes from his own environment, nature. As a sense of the calming waves and aggressive internal conflict merge together to create a chaotic rhythm of his perceptions of his own environment and sense of identity.
N.B.
1. A Hans Namuth portrait of Jackson Pollock (1950), http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/namuth/pol3nam.htm
2. Bellaney at his performance-based exhibition at none gallery earlier this year
3. Piece from the collection, 'Natural landscapes'
4. Piece from the collection, 'Corrosion'
