Darren Sylvester's multifaceted-disciplinary practice works across set building, staged photography, sculpture, furniture, movie props, music and installation. Each exhibition is the result of detailed research and planning, where connections and clues are uncovered on a wide range of cultural moments and artefacts, all designed to investigate the language between perceived high and low culture, the nature of authenticity, high gloss desirability, and inevitable mortality. Works then present themselves like pop songs with a polished universal story, direct and to the point however inherent with levels of complexity that are parts wry, poignant, and melancholic.
Selected Works
Selected Works
lightjet print
90 × 180 cm
lightjet print
160 x 120 cm
two lightjet prints
240 x 160 cm
90 x 120 cm
lightjet print
two lightjet prints
240 × 160 cm
Darren Sylvester, Psychic's House, The National: New Australian Art, 2021.
Installation view, Carriageworks, Sydney. Photography by Zan Wimberley.
Darren Sylvester, Carve a Future, Devour Everything, Become Something, 2019
Installation view, Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. Photography by Tom Ross.
lightjet print
180 x 120 cm
lightjet print
160 x 120 cm
Darren Sylvester, Adelaide Biennial, 2022.
Installation view, The Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
lightjet print
120 x 160 cm
lightjet print
90 x 120 cm
lightjet print
160 × 120cm
lightjet print
120 × 160 cm
Exhibitions
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About
Darren Sylvester
Biography
Darren Sylvester's multifaceted-disciplinary practice works across set building, staged photography, sculpture, furniture, movie props, music and installation. Each exhibition is the result of detailed research and planning, where connections and clues are uncovered on a wide range of cultural moments and artefacts, all designed to investigate the language between perceived high and low culture, the nature of authenticity, high gloss desirability, and inevitable mortality. Works then present themselves like pop songs with a polished universal story, direct and to the point however inherent with levels of complexity that are parts wry, poignant, and melancholic.
Sylvester’s practice transforms visual consumption into a direct, yet layered discussion on collective ennui and pathos, while his ever-expanding use of materials and mediums has created a Gesamtkunstwerk (a total or overall singular work of art) that continues throughout his career.
Sylvester exhibits widely nationally and internationally. In 2019 he was the subject of a major survey exhibition and monograph at NGV Australia, ‘Carve a Future, Devour Everything, Become Something’.
Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Dear Diary’, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney (2022); ‘Shoobie Doobie’, Neon Parc, Melbourne (2021); ‘Out of Life’, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney (2018); ‘Broken Model’, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney (2016); ‘Darren Sylvester’, VOLTA NY, Soho, New York (2013); ‘Darren Sylvester – Take Me To You’, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), Singapore (2010); and his photographic survey exhibition ‘Our Future Was Ours’, Australia Centre for Photography, Sydney (2008).
Selected group exhibitions include ‘Maria Kozic x Darren Sylvester’, Neon Parc, Melbourne (2023); the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: ‘Free/State’, Art Gallery of South Australia (2022); ‘The National’ Carriageworks, NSW (2021); ‘The Sculptural Body’, MUMA, Melbourne (2021); ‘Hold Still: the photographic performance’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2018); ‘Melbourne Now’, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013).
His work is held in many public and private collections including the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), National Gallery of Victoria, (NGV), Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA), Sir Elton John Collection, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Melbourne University Collection and the Monash University Collection.
Sullivan+Strumpf acknowledge the Indigenous People of this land, the traditional custodians on whose Country we work, live and learn. We pay respect to Elders, past and present, and recognise their continued connection to culture, land, waters and community.