PARASOCIAL RELATIONS BY GREGORY UZELAC

VANDAL Presents ‘PARASOCIAL RELATIONS’ Exhibition by Gregory Uzelac

Exhibition Opening Night next Thursday 31st March, 6-9pm at VANDAL Gallery.

Gregory Uzelac was born and raised in New York City. His work draws inspiration from the cultural hybridization of migration, mass media, and mythology. Uzelac considers myth to be an untapped resource for artistic expression and encourages society to embrace storytelling and mythmaking as a means to overcome social and political disharmony. Uzelac holds a BA from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and an MFA from Sydney University/Sydney College of the Arts.

In this collection of narrative portraits spanning three years, Uzelac takes satirical, yet genuine aim at relationships in the internet age. Each painting is completed using his “visceral technique,” in which a subject’s movement is tracked in ink, and then filled in with mood, setting, dialogue, and other narrative elements translated as colour and material. Intersecting lines and disorienting colour patterns offer a distorted yet raw depiction of the voyeurism and detached interaction in which we partake on the internet and offline.

For Uzelac this collection dives into the mixture of joy, lament, excitement, and guilt that comes with indulging our desire to be both audience and actor in a world where the lines between connection, surveillance, and entertainment are increasingly blurred.