Mitchell McAuley 'Scratching Lines'

October 7-28

I work with wood, metal, and salvaged materials to construct forms that sit between the familiar and the ambiguous. These objects lean toward the architectural, suggesting frames or towers, but they resist clear function. They might mark territory, divide space, or stand as evidence of a provisional system that is either unfinished or deteriorating.

I am interested in how structures define relationships. They help us understand what is inside and what is outside, what is upright and what has fallen, what is temporary and what endures. Whether placed in the landscape or built at a smaller scale in the studio, the works explore how constructed forms imply use or occupation even when they are empty. They are not ruins, but they hint at both a beginning and an end.

My recent charcoal drawings of the portas of Bologna function as conceptual thresholds. These gateways serve as entrances into the sculptural work. They are made from lines, erasures, and accumulated marks, much like the sculptures are shaped through cutting, joining, and the layered histories of their materials. Each body of work informs the other, opening a conversation about passage, framing, and the quiet tension between idea and structure.

Artist Bio

Mitchell McAuley began his art career after leaving the Victorian College of the Arts in 1984. Working and exhibiting in Melbourne, he gained success and attention with two exhibitions at Rumbarellas Gallery. Travelling around Australia in 1986, he reached Perth, his birth town, and began working at Mojo Advertising while preparing for an exhibition in Perth. This experience in a commercial surround led him to create his own fashion label, "Mitch Dowd Boxer Shorts" The business grew dramatically and is a major label in all department and specialty stores throughout Australia. The success had its downside, and he was forced to put his art career to the side. Finally, in 1996, he left the business and got back to what he loved most, ART, but this time a bit wiser and wealthier. Since then, he has had sell-out exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney and Hong Kong. Becoming one of Australia's leading emerging artists, a finalist in awards, and highly sought by art collectors. McAuley has a young family and a property in the hills of central Victoria, where he creates full-time in his strawbale studio. An avid environmentalist, he lives the way he preaches in a rammed-earth building, powered by solar and wind power. In March 2011, McAuley left with his family to live in Bologna, Italy, for a two-year adventure of exploration, painting and art history. He is determined to immerse himself in Italian life, enjoying the opportunities it holds, and furthering his career abroad. We look forward to his future work, as he leaves with a most successful exhibition with

ALTITUDEART, "The Lake Hindmarsh Project" in which he ventured into woodcuts, bronze sculpture, Super8 film and painting. Since arriving in Bologna, Mitchell has found a studio and is working on new projects as well as travelling around Italy and, in particular, the nearby towns and countryside. His studio in Via Remorsella has been very productive, and he exhibits his recent works on a monthly basis in what he calls "La Piccola Galleria", the front room of his studio. He has been invited to exhibit again in Melbourne with his Italian works at MARS gallery in August 2012, as well as at Villa Spada, Bologna, in an art festival over the summer period 2012.

Arriving back in Australia in 2015, after exhibiting and working in several studios and spaces in Bologna. Mitchell now lives and works between his studio and country residence, and Melbourne. He has exhibited since returning to Gallery Smith Project Space, Motorworks Gallery, as well as resuming his art projects and plein-air travels with Altitude Art.