October 2021
FRONT GALLERY

NICHOLAS ALOISIO-SHEARER (QLD)

Reject Modernity, Embrace Tradition engages with the decorative traditions of Baroque tapestry and contemporary fantasy illustration to draw out the affective connections between Western art history and regressive, online cultures. The collapse of geek masculinity and historical, allegorical figuration in this exhibition interrogates how we negotiate fantasy, desire and the flattening of identity in an indifferent and infinitely complex historical moment. Consisting of a number of tapestries and sculptures, the exhibition looks to where humans forget that we have created images in order to situate and understand our place in the world and instead invest in the image as being the only relevant view of the world, and the alienating aspects of this phenomenon.

Nicholas Aloisio-Shearer is an artist whose practice is concerned with the digital conditions of contemporary life. His practice engages with the cultural functions of imaging technologies and examines how networked cultures are shaped by the technologies and images they exist within. He has exhibited in a number of galleries including UNSW Galleries and Milani Gallery, and artist-run spaces including Firstdraft (Sydney), Kudos Gallery (Sydney) and Bus Projects (Melbourne). He graduated with Honours from a Bachelor of Design in Photography and Situated Media at UTS in 2014 and in 2019 completed a Masters of Fine Art (Research) at UNSWAD.