Name FINN, Lawrence

Culture
Aotearoa New Zealander | Australian | Male

Active by 1980

Birth Date 1969

Birth Place Nelson, New Zealand

Summary
Printmaker | Private press | Worked: Australia (NSW). Woodcuts
Context
Australia
Web Address
www.lawrencefinn.com

See also
ACTUS REUS PRESS

I have made prints since I was 16, literally making hundreds (if not quite thousands) of them. My printing style is not spontaneous in the way that it can be for a painter. It is a considered and thoughtful process (akin to the best sculpture). It is somewhat introspective and cathartic in the hypnotic qualities of its creation. This results in an engagement with the media and with the intellect.



The artists who I most admire (Hulsenbeck, Heartfield, Masereel, Bellmer, Farleigh, Nerdrum, Wolgemut, Groupe Irwin) all exhibit considered mindfulness, passionately engaged in their media and in the world that they see around them. They use aesthetics as a device with which to communicate outside of their privileged hermetic intellectual existence. They communicate as best they can to those who do not want to see, hear or share anything of the world beyond their solipsistic perception of reality. My favourite artists harness aesthetics to overcome the everyday obstacles of telling their stories.



They are also intellectually aware that art exists within the world, not apart from it; art is a mechanism of utopianism, which can engage with, translate and transform the world. They express within and via their art, notions of idealism and heroicism. More importantly they offer a glimpse of their humanity as they use their art to declare who they are and that they still believe in a better world within our reach.

… Read More