CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM AmberRose Hulme

Predominantly working with pastel on paper, Amber-Rose Hulme creates evocative, photo-realistic representations of the urban and industrial everyday. Interested in the idea of graffiti as a visual form of conversation between the many individuals who contribute to these constantly evolving murals, Hulme uses light, texture and the inevitable nature of decay to draw out ideas of social circumstance and the experience of a personal or cultural identity. Laneways, back alleys and abandoned industrial sites, each emptied of human presence, serve as the many backdrops for a melancholy awareness of the transience of human endeavour, and the beauty of the graffiti that enlivens the spaces we inhabit.

Exploring the ever-changing physiognomy of the urban landscape, Amber-rose Hulme captures quiet in-between moments when the streets seem to stop and exhale a long, restorative breath. Working with pastel on paper, the Melbourne artist is drawn to the temporality of street art and the almost geological ways in which it is formed, layered, engulfed, exposed – the ways it encases architecture like a skin that is shed, continually, for new iterations. She draws our attention to the beauty of unintentional artistic collaboration; how each graffitied mark speaks to the next in a vivacious dialogue of surface and colour.
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Elli Walsh 2021

Words once spoken are lost to the air. Graffiti, though less temporal, is similarly fleeting. At its creation the crisp, sweeping lines shout loudly over each other, yet as time passes the character of the buildings themselves add their voices to the crowd. As new voices are added the dialogue grows and earlier voices are silenced. With these works I seek to capture a single moment of the conversation between both the landscape and the words of many. The highly saturated areas of the image are intended to accentuate the increased volume of chatter created by the layers of graffiti on a previously quiet scene.
Artists Statement, Amber-Rose Hulme

After initially pursuing a career in genetics, Amber-Rose Hulme shifted direction in 2011 to pursue a career in fine art. The last few years have been busy ones for Hulme, who has been a successful finalist in numerous awards including the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award (2019), the Muswellbrook Art Prize (2019, 2018, 2015), Bendigo Art Gallery’s biennial Paul Guest Prize (2018), the Rick Amor Art Prize (2016), the Stanthorpe Art Prize (2016), the Hutchins Art Prize (2015) and the Sunshine Coast Art Prize (2015).

Hulme first exhibited with FLG during our annual emerging artist exhibition, Exploration 15, and was subsequently signed on to the gallery stable in 2016. Her artwork Tranquil Neglect was acquired by the Art Gallery of Ballarat for their permanent collection in 2016. She held her first solo exhibition with the gallery in 2017.

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