Painted from both photographs and memory, the works evoke the vast and epic landscapes of the High Country near to Benalla, with the exhibition even including a work depicting nearby Mount Buffalo.
Benalla Art Gallery director Eric Nash said Mr Lloyd’s hyperreal landscapes go beyond pictorial representation.
“They occupy the same rarefied air as the landscapes themselves, and through their exacting execution, have audiences questioning the slippery space between reality and fantasy,” Mr Nash said.
“Tony is a meticulous artist and takes inspiration from a lineage of renowned landscape painters such as Caspar David Friedrich and Eugene Von Guerard — the latter fittingly featuring in our current Ledger Collection exhibition.”
Mr Lloyd said he greatly appreciate this opportunity to exhibit in Benalla and show a more complete picture of the world he has been creating for years.
“High Plains Drift brings together, for the first time, a selection of my paintings from the past two decades,” Mr Lloyd said.
“During this time I have painted hundreds of pictures. This presentation focuses on the landscapes in which I love to immerse myself.
“Every painting I make is a view of the world that I have actively sought out by watching the landscape and noticing how its character is transformed by light and time of day.
“This sometimes involves climbing a mountainside at dawn and waiting for the sun’s rays to creep across a rock face, or scrambling over rocks at low tide when the angle of light reveals deep shadow lines on granite cliffs, or driving for hours along remote highways at night with a camera recording the view through the windscreen.”
Mr Lloyd will also return to Benalla to present an artist talk as part of the gallery’s first Mondays series at 10am on Monday, April 3.
High Plains Drift is on display until May 7.
A digital catalogue has also been developed for the exhibition featuring an essay by artist, writer, and independent curator, Dr Peter Hill.
Places for Mr Lloyd’s artist talk are strictly limited. To reserve yours email gallery@benalla.vic.gov.au
