Nocturnalux: Tony Lloyd

Tony Lloyd's new exhibition presents scenes from a twilight drive along the backroads and lost highways of the Gippsland/Bunurong hinterland. These richly monochromatic paintings of semi-rural wilderness,  illuminated only by high beam headlights and a faintly glowing sky, depict a realm of tangled tree shadows, glaring roads signs and winding centre lines that dissolve into darkness. In these paintings Lloyd explores the landscape from a driver’s point of view and at night, when you can only see as far as the headlights’ reach, the road takes on an archetypal and metaphorical resonance.

Lloyd’s fascination with geology and deep time is apparent in his paintings of the rugged granite formations of Cape Woolamai and Wilson’s Promontory/Wamoon. His centred compositions emphasise the singular monumentality of these ancient rock features shaped by natural forces over millions of years.

Lloyd has been recently shortlisted for the Hadley’s Art Prize, Australia’s richest for Landscape painting and the John Leslie Art prize, which he previously won in 2012. His work will feature in the forthcoming Turner & Australia at Gippsland Art Gallery, the first major exhibition to survey the profound influence of J.M.W. Turner on Australian art. Tony Lloyd lives and works in Cape Woolamai.