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Neon Parc acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung as the Traditional Owners and sovereign custodians of the Country on which we operate. We pay our deepest respects to their Elders past and present. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

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Dale Frank
‘Cynthia’s Ovaries swelled to the size of Grapefruit’
Brunswick
6 Oct.–4 Nov.
2023

Neon Parc is pleased to announce a major solo exhibition of new paintings by Dale Frank, to be held over two of the gallery’s locations in Brunswick and South Yarra. 

For the artist’s eleventh solo project with the gallery, Cynthia’s Ovaries swelled to the size of Grapefruit reveals a powerful evolution of Frank’s honed technique and traces his development using translucent dye, in concert with various resins. In these new paintings vivid colours ranging from fluorescent blues to pastel pinks oscillate between tiny flecks of colour and large opulent spills. The viscosity of the ink differs from the powdered pigments Frank has previously used, allowing colours to bleed and bloom within the picture plane. These frozen gestures feel as though the audience has caught them mid-flight, as the transparent dyes seem weightless – suspended in the thick layers of resin which give the paintings immense depth and physicality.

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A prolific maker with a decades-long commitment to abstraction, Dale Frank’s oeuvre is defined by a remarkably experimental approach to painting. The parameters within which he works—decisions surrounding colour, gesture and technique—are problems that can only be solved through the process of making and rigorous investigation. In asking those questions for over 40 years, one wonders—are they still problems, or is the process quite as effortless as it looks?

Dale’s psychologically charged artwork titles are known for their ribald, offensive, mundane and domestic nature, which add a new lens to viewing, further implicating the audience in the consumption of the work. Frank is interested in catching people in this moment of bewilderment—as they search the abstract swirls and textures of his full and luminous paintings for meanings and analogies offered via broken narratives. “Cynthia’s Ovaries swelled to the size of Grapefruit” is at once a rumour, a warning, an old wives tale and a colloquial quip, hinting at the complex interiority Frank’s paintings inhabit. 

Again and again, Frank succeeds at finding new ways to provoke and astonish his viewers as alongside his search for mystique, is a long-held pursuit of beauty. Each painting in “Cynthia’s Ovaries swelled to the size of Grapefruit” is unique in its’ character, and constructs an incredible ecology of light, reflection and vibration. Glistening hues and rivulets captivate us and subvert our expectations through detailed topographies. Layers of translucent pigments inhabit the paintings like fertile algae, some marks are manipulated while still drying, others are droplets of glowing ink which seep outward from the centre. 



Artworks
(25)
Exhibitions (15)
Biography Dale Frank

Dale Frank is one of Australia’s most preeminent and influential artists. Exhibiting internationally since the 1980s, Frank has shown at prestigious institutions, including MoMA PS1, New York (1981), Biennale of Sydney (1982 and 2010), 42nd Venice Biennale (1983 and 1984). Recent selected group exhibitions include Unpainting, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2017-18); Every Brilliant Eye: Australian Art of the 1990’s, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2017); Dancing Umbrellas, curated by Sue Cramer, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne (2016); Dark Heart, curated by Nick Mitzevich, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia (2014); Mix Tape 1980s: Appropriation, Subculture, Critical Style, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013); and Les Arts De L’effervescence Champagne, Musée des Beaux Arts de Reims, France (2013). In 2013, his work was featured in Personal Structures at the Palazzo Bembo as part of the official program of the 55th Venice Biennale. A major solo retrospective of his work was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney in 2000. Frank’s work is held in all major Australian state galleries, and a number of regional and university collections. It is also held in international collections, including Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, New Zealand; Musée de Ville de Leige, Leige; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Zurich Kunsthaus; and a number of corporate collections.

A major monograph on the last ten years of Frank’s art practice will be published and available before the end of 2023. An 100-minute feature film shot over the last three and a half years, is scheduled for cinema release with Australian and International Distribution at the beginning of 2024.

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Dale Frank, ‘Jennifer’s predictions for the future included taking a pill to loose all her excess body hair so no twice weekly waxing’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 150 x 100 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Paul’s predictions for the future included not having to work for the Dole’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 150 x 100 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Sharon’s predictions for the future included being able to eat domestic cats in order to save native birdlife’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 150 x 100 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Toni’s predictions for the future included being able to purchase intelligent fitting face masks of famous people so she could walk to the shops in her trackkies, not be laughed at for having a big arse, but hit on, thinking she was Jennifer Lopez’, 2023. Translucent dyes and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 150 x 100 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘He felt so betrayed by everything around him, he would have to sleep the night from five in the afternoon’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 150 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘He felt so betrayed by everything around him, as he could not remember those strangers who greeted him so intimately, intimately he could only hope and imagine, as he feebly fondled between his legs for some memory of recognition’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 150 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘He felt so betrayed by everything around him, the evaporation of the moisture of time, leaving the drought that created the incessant itch, the dry incontinence of doubt and the desert like fungi that invested in his toes’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 150 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Travis used to rub a collection of his late fathers underwear over his naked groin and erect penis in the change rooms before every game he played in for the South Lismore Soccer club under 18s’, 2023. Translucent dyes and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 160 x 120 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Despite the obvious risk, Travis had the idea of sex change surgery so he could become a dominatrix lesbian’, 2023. Translucent dyes and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 160 x 120 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘At times Travis was seen on the orange Husqvarna ride on, mowing his mothers and neighbours lawn in nothing just his orange jockies’, 2023. Translucent dyes and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 160 x 120 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Travis wished and longed for the day where he did not have to eat a family size pack of Twisties every morning to stop him vomiting up the alcohol from the night before’, 2023. Translucent dyes and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 160 x 120 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Thirty year old Arturo and his mother moved from Brunswick to open a gelato shop just outside Byron Bay and have a new future together’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 180 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Brian and Belinda both loved at least the idea of anal sex which they did once a year on their Anzac weekend, 9 hours away in Nowra, but Belinda read she could still get pregnant while Brian hated that Belinda made farting noises after sex, so usually instead they both decided on watching Aussie war movies on Foxtel was the better option’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 180 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Driving into Rockhampton, for the first time in 26 years he wondered how better he would feel if he had actually run her over with his Land Cruiser outside Warwick as he had imagined, not to have this friend of a friend for 18 hours, jumping on him as he tried to sleep, telling him the complications with her Ovaries and tubes, her personal hygiene life story, how she felt a unique bond between them’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 180 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Flying into Queenstown Tasmania, in the hired Piper Chieftain 9 passenger plane we realised for the first time, despite the spectacular views, that there were no toilets on board, and no airfield in Queenstown’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 180 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Peter, who worked for an Olive Oil manufacturer in Leeton, which had been recently winning International Awards for their first press extra virgin olive oil in the last year, had been missing for two years, seemingly missed the most by the son of the owner, while his remains were found during an unscheduled maintenance check, secured to the base in the largest vat, it was said, this gave the olive oil its own distinctive nutty flavour’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 200 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Recently married, Sofie, who had been a big party girl most of her life, always with at least two boyfriends on the go, found sex in her married life with diminutive Lyle a little empty, so to get more, she got Lyle to unwrap two nine inch raspberry flavoured Icypoles and push them into her vagina, she said so it would make her tighter, freeze her, and better for him, and ten minutes later when they had sex, she was uncontrollably hyperventilating, both thinking the sex was great, but she died just minutes in from cold shock and Lyle suffered ice burns and blisters to his penis’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 200 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘It was only while the local Council was digging to put in a new septic tank at Wattle Ponds, the home of Jamie, a 38 year old Afghan veteran, did they discover the bodies of the bound and hog tied five local young men who had all gone missing after drinking at the Caledonian hotel over the previous 12 months, but Jim could not comment as he was away at an Court enforced Marriage Counselling week’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 200 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Cynthia’s body was found five weeks later in the recycling bins behind the Paterson Hotel 25 minutes north of Maitland as her seven cats were noticed almost daily jumping in and out of the bins, to chew on her heavy set thighs and moist groin, because Laura, Cynthia’s partner for the last nine years absolutely refused to feed any of them’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 200 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Viraj loved his job as a Woolworths Cessnock home delivery driver, meeting new people, meeting the same people, but after 3 months he never turned up for work, so his cousin Aarush took his place, also a people person, but after 4 months he too never came to work, and it was 12 months later that they both were found in Moranbah, Central Queensland, wearing nothing but short aprons, lipstick and eye makeup in a secured building in a fly in fly out mining site’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 200 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Lachlan worked for the Generation Church’s aluminium manufacturing company making windows and sliding doors, and even though he did not take part in their mid morning prayer service wishing abundance upon all, he was still considered a fun, exciting new member of the team, so he was invited to their corporate Christian 3 day slam poetry bbq weekend, but attending he got an uneasy feeling from the situation as each Christian brother was pushing a solid banana up their annus’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 200 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘Morrie was a semi retired 67 year old Backhoe driver with 48 years experience, and while others who knew him joked he knew where the local bodies were buried, it was more about where his three missing Filipino wives were that was a concern to his seven children’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 200 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘At the conclusion though epoxy smeared reading glasses all he could see was the blurred intention of something more obvious, but yet hidden by his own fear, yet demanded by his increasingly pot bellied gallery dealer’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 260 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘He felt so betrayed by everything around him, his insides had become so repulsed by him, foreign, incarcerated, without purpose, fervently crippling him to nighttime manoeuvres, cripplingly in their demands, detention for an unknown time, living in the cheapest motel with no room service, the countless awake hours just raw time for something he thought he was not’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 150 cm.
Dale Frank, ‘He dreamt of his local FedEx Driver asking him would he like to go out for a drink one evening; he dreamt of his local TNT driver saying it’s the end of the day what about a beer my friend; he dreamt of his local Pitt Express Courier saying I just need to take a piss now mate…. But no matter how many large soft toys he ordered for delivery he was always desperately disappointed despite the eye contact he knew had existed’, 2023. Translucent dyes in pigment and easycast, epoxyglass, on perspex, 200 x 200 cm.