B 1976, Sydney, Australia

Born and raised in Sydney and now residing in Brisbane, Brooklyn Whelan is one of Australia’s leading contemporary visual artists. Working primarily with oil and acrylics, his style is heavily influenced by natural weather phenomenoms and futurism. His work has been described as somewhere in between abstract and realism, ethereal, minimal and modern.

"I work hard to develop paintings that speak about the beauty and power that exists within weather patterns. I constantly find myself staring into oncoming storms. I do not merely want to capture the image with my painting; rather, with strong bold strokes, I want to give it an energy that blurs science fiction and real-time. Powerful, but with a softness and respectful grace of an energetic weather system.

Whelan’s work hangs in many private collections worldwide and exhibits internationally in New York, London, Atlanta, Miami, Hong Kong and his within his home country of Australia. His commercial career has also seen him collaborate with some of the worlds largest brands including Adidas, Samsung, Universal Records and Bergdorf Goodman among many others. He also featured as the first artist in residence with Australia's biggest music festival, Splendour in the Grass.

Words by Ralph Hobbs

Whelan’s painting practice connects into a profoundly elemental part of the human the psyche. Since man first looked to the skies to imagine what existed beyond our earth-bound reality, ethereal white cloud structures have provided a bridge to the heavens. From the religious to the mystical, we have imagined, philosophised, and scientifically investigated the enigmatic white and grey forms that flow overhead. Forms are constantly morphing into shapes—real and imagined in the human mind. From prehistory to science fiction, the enigmatic clouds have captured our imagination individually and collectively.

Whelan is an artist that taps into the fundamental part of our imagination where ideas and thoughts are often repressed in our day-to-day existence. There is a release and freedom to his work, in effect allowing us to escape and imagine beyond the rational. An abstract quality is evident in his practice, although a sharpened realism will often exist within the composition. The artist has an impact that is strong—a fleeting glance or the dedicated will gaze will reveal different things. A skill honed from the street scene where immediacy and skill are highly regarded, Whelan’s studio practice moves his visual conversation to a more profound level—one that has been acknowledged and revered world-wide. The artist regularly exhibits in London and the across USA and his work has been included in many significant collections across the globe.

‘Kingdoms’ Sydney, Februaury 2023

Words by Ralph Hobbs

Romanticism, the eponymous 19th-century movement, was born from an artistic and literary society eager to find meaning beyond the rationalism of the newly minted Industrial Age. After millennia of faith-based indoctrination directed from the pulpit, enlightened rationality had gained philosophical ascendancy. This blew open a spiritual void: that very human concern with what is unseen yet felt in the omnipresence of nature.

The Romantic entanglement with the Abyss—the search for what exists beyond the mortal—was manifested through the painting of John Martin, Caspar David Friedrich, and J.M.W Turner. Through climactic and atmospheric compositions, these artists pursued notions of Heaven and Hell, both literally and allegorically. Turbulent cloud structures, lightning strikes, dramatic tone and colour were wielded to portray nature toying with man.

In a contemporary context, Brooklyn Whelan’s practice probes and pokes at the Romantic tradition. His own evocative cloudscapes—wherein calamitous cumuli give way to an eerie calmness after the storm passes—act as an anecdote for the world we inhabit; eternally beautiful yet threatening. The fluidity of Whelan’s painting practice is evident throughout the exhibition. His process is rich in passion, always working from a central point, with each structure evolving and morphing as the artist gives way to a mandative precision rather than a preordained composition. Inherent in Whelan’s practice is the freedom for his audience to journey through their own personal relationship with the natural world.

Kingdoms is an exhibition that draws on Whelan’s formative street art practice. His studio painting nods to the artist’s embellished graffiti letter work. In both instances, recurring vivid colour lines bisect the picture plane, bringing a visual sharpness to his compositions. The ethereal quality of Whelan’s amorphic cloud structures juxtaposes against striking laser beams. The flashes of technicolour reflect our electrified modernity, whilst hinting at long-asked but never answered existential questions.

‘Terra Nimbus’ Sydney, October 2019

Words by Jonathan Dalton

Whelan brings an iteratively considered change to his solo exhibition Terra Nimbus. His signature brooding, high contrast cloudscapes remain but he introduces a compelling new element with his explosion paintings.

There is a beguiling logic in Whelan’s choice. Explosions are the sudden, cataclysmic cousins of slow moving clouds but once captured in time and paint they become almost the same.

“It’s all about that phase shift with them both,” says Whelan “The act of disintegration is also an act of regeneration.”

That juxtaposition of forces continues throughout the show which brings a paradoxical lyricism to these works. He combines bold loose brushwork but subtly enhances with delicate touches of pure oil paints. The beautiful soft pinks and greys against the drama of the blacks and whites and neon flashes of colour. The ponderous moody danger of his clouds against the sudden destructive power of his explosions.

Whelan has also suggested at an identifiable horizon line in some of his new works. It translates his cloudscapes into something approaching a landscape yet still manages to keep them feeling fleeting and evanescent. Removing the clouds from his black voids and bringing them back to earth only serves to emphasize their volatility.

A solid earth but an ephemeral sky.

Terra Nimbus.

‘Pressure’ London, March 2019

Words by Gemma Murray.

One of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, Whelan totally reinvents the landscape genre with his futuristic, vibrant and oh-so-cool skyscapes. It seems apt that these sublime and wandering cloud scenes should be originated in Australia with its endless horizons and vast open skies, although Whelan imagines his sky scenes, plucking storms and swirling clouds from his minds eye. Having collaborated with some of the worlds biggest brands, such as Adidas, Samsung and Universal Records, Whelan is no small fish. His masterful depictions retain all the grace and lightness of real skyscapes, but it is the inherent masculinity and electricity that Whelan imbues his pieces with that sets them apart from other contemporary works.

‘Strike Now, Riot Later’ Sydney, July 2018

Words by Jonathan Dalton.

Echoes of Brooklyn Whelan’s earlier incarnation in graffiti can be found in his new solo show, Strike Now Riot Later. He demonstrates an understanding of the structural flow and sweeping rhythm of popular culture as, in some works, the clouds float from one canvas to the next. A delicate balance between urban scrawl and gallery, the paintings drift along an ephemeral line between abstract and real, gestural mark making and meticulous rendering, stylistic boldness and nuanced composition.
But under all of that, there is a hint of something more. Pareidolia – that instinct we have to see significant forms where none exist – kicks in. A hidden message emerges and shapes appear before fading back into the cloudscape.
These are works of a reduced palette, but containing unexpected flashes of colour – they’re so thoughtfully considered that there is both a richness and a subtlety to them, a sense of both instinctual harmony and muted beauty.

PRESS LINKS

SOLO SHOWS