Collection: #ozpop | Franck Gohier Exhibition
Darwin-based artist Franck Gohier returns to Mitchell Fine Art with a new series of artworks that continue his appropriation of 1950’s and 60’s vintage comic books and popular culture.
#ozpop is Gohier’s homage to the history of Australian Pop. Satirical, politically, and socially motivated his artworks are a reflection of society and its faults, frailties and triumphs.
Franck Gohier has an extensive portfolio as a painter, sculptor, and printmaker. His artwork is steeped in his political and social consciousness.
His new exhibition #Ozpop pays homage and a continuing lineage to Australian Pop Artists. Franck Gohier's smaller assemblage pieces in this exhibition hark back to a time in early Pop Art when the commodification and objectification of all popular culture, including the female form, was accepted as the norm. His use of bright colours, text and popular imagery belies his works' deeper messages.
‘I do not place too much emphasis on explaining my paintings to an audience. Some are obvious, some are ambiguous, and others yet are totally absurdist. I do however invite the viewer to explore the visuals, to read the titles, to allow themselves to imagine what they may interpret the painting to be from their own subjectivity’ says Gohier.
‘I am consciously aware that most comic books are marketed at young men and so I created a lot of imagery that centre around strong, empowered woman characters’.
Franck Gohier's artworks have been acquired by Artbank, the Australian National Gallery Canberra, the Casula Powerhouse Art Centre, Gold Coast Art Gallery, Griffith University and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.