Adnate: Renaissance Revival
Adnate is an Australian street artist whose unique technique has been compared to the Renaissance masters of the past. fluoro spoke to Adnate about the drama in his work and how he explores the beauty of indigenous Australian culture through his practice.
Adnate was naturally drawn to graffiti from being surrounded by skateboarding culture and the urban environment while growing up. Starting out as a ‘tagger’ he then moved into lettering, before challenging himself to invest his skills into detailed portraiture.
“When I started doing portraits I was inspired as there was more emotion and attitude [than lettering], that I could put straight into the faces. I could also tell a story,” he said.
(f) A number of your works include motifs from iconic Renaissance works. What particularly captures you about the Renaissance?
(A) The reason I am inspired by the Renaissance is due to the artist’s technique, their skills and the emotion they conveyed. Italian artist Caravaggio, the way he painted, his lifestyle – everything I loved. He would paint his pieces very quickly, never sketch and was reactive to what needed to be achieved. This is a way I also work. The strongest technique I have adopted from studying Renaissance is chiaroscuro, the technique of creating drama through a strong contrast of light and dark.
(f) Is your Renaissance style of painting self-taught?
(A) I stayed with an artist in the north of the Netherlands called Nash. Nash is a graffiti artist I admire who works with surrealistic characters. Creating detail can be challenging with a spray can and Nash taught me a style that has evolved to the way I work today. My work is still a constant evolution.
(f) Do you see a relationship between Renaissance buildings and contemporary street art?
(A) Many of the Renaissance paintings were commissioned. This is very different to contemporary street art. Apart from that, a lot of the murals seen on churches are quite public. The Renaissance movement was one of the biggest known to man at the time.
Today, the graffiti movement is ten times larger and ten times more famous than the Renaissance movement was. If you travel to any corner of the globe, from India, Malaysia to Brazil, there is graffiti there. There are more people in the world painting street art than any other art movement. This is the biggest art movement that has existed.
(f) What planning and preparation do you take before projecting such detailed works onto large walls?
(A) Most of what I paint are portraits of people who I have personally photographed in my studio under proper lighting. To get emotive images I take photographs in my studio with chiaroscuro lighting in a pitch-black room with a spotlight. As I work from a photograph I have to ensure I have the right subject and the right photograph to paint from – the photograph makes up 90% of the composition.
(f) What first drew you to exploring indigenous Australian communities and their stories?
(A) I find indigenous people to be such a powerful subject matter. I grew up in inner city Melbourne, so I was not exposed to much indigenous culture. When I started learning about the culture I was so inspired and it completely changed the way I thought about indigenous Australians and their situation. I felt racially ignorant with what I learnt at highshool.
Indigenous people are such inspiring people with a beautiful culture. When I paint Aboriginal portraits on the street, it reminds people of the importance of this culture. Indigenous people have told me that they get a lot of power from these paintings and it enlightens them; they are reclaiming the space.
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In preparation for his 2014 show at Metro Gallery, the coming months will see Adnate travel into remote indigenous communities and immerse himself in their culture. He will also continue to work with the Wurundjeri tribe, based around Melbourne, Australia.
Adnate will also work with a diverse selection of artists to transform the Darling Quarter’s Village Square into an open-air street art studio for this year’s edition of Project Five. While Adnate has not yet decided what he will be painting, he does know that as the Renaissance artists did, he wants the viewer to feel an emotion from his paintings. Project Five will launch on Friday 27 September 2013.
www.adnate.com.au
www.project5.com.au
