Stuart Watters is a contemporary artist based on Wullumedegal country in Sydney. Over a period of several decades, he has explored aspects of abstraction against the tide of alternative cultural discourse. Universal concepts of form and colour lay the foundations for his rigorous examination of painting, albeit with reference to the vernacular of modernism. His adaption of hard-edged shapes, linear configurations and areas of frenetic brushwork, extend the conversation of abstraction into the 21st century with a receptiveness to improvisation and an emphasis on complex structure. This has produced unique compositions that combine with painterly gesture to form an essential part of his core aesthetic. Watters believes it is not a matter of striving towards the endgame of formal development with a singular and ideal notion of painting. What is at stake is the individual attraction to a visual language that is never a definitive way of making art, but rather an evolving process that reaffirms the profundity of abstraction and its ability to liberate the afflicted soul from a world in constant flux.
Watters is a Master of Fine Arts graduate from the University of New South Wales and since the 1980s has exhibited with numerous established galleries throughout Australia including Hogarth Galleries, Crawford Gallery, Kaliman Gallery, Boutwell Draper Gallery and Gallery9. He has been a finalist in major prizes including the Wynne Prize, Sulman Prize and Dobell Drawing Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales; Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing; Grace Cossington Smith Art Award; Fishers’ Ghost Art Prize; Salon des Refusés; Paddington Art Prize and Muswellbrook Art Prize. Awards include the Sir William Dobell Foundation Art Award (for painting), Georges River Art Prize, Honorable Mention Award – Paddington Art Prize, Highly Commended – Muswellbrook Prize, Highly Commended – Georges River Art Prize. Collections include Artbank, Sir William Dobell Art Foundation, UNSW Art Collection, Hurstville Museum & Gallery, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, corporate and private collections.
