Modernism revisited

NZ born Northern Territories (Australia) based artist Peter Adsett recently exhibited at the Grant Pirrie gallery in Redfern, Sydney. Adsett describes his More Rot series as a purely abstract visual representation of cross cultural debate: “In this space that is beyond picturing and can only be painted, I explore an operation that opens a dialogue between abstraction and non-Western art of this region (Aboriginal and Maori). For me, abstraction offers the means of constructively entering the cross-cultural debate, whilst evading the stifling dispute about influence or appropriation.” Critic Patrick Hutchings wonders if More Rot is simultaneously an attack on the European Modernist tradition: “Is Adsett dead set against Modernism, or is he providing a visual unfolding of it? Only the very thoughtful and the totally clued-up will positively enjoy these works … Permission will be granted to look, anew, at Mondrian.” (9 August – 3 September 25)