Tony Convey is an Australian outsider artist and co-founder of Tellurian Research Press.
Tony Convey was born in Prahran, Melbourne in 1946. From the age of six he had a wide range of interests including geology, literature, growing bulbs, music and cinema. In the early 1960's he began working on the Melbourne waterfront, where his father, grandfather and uncles also worked, and enjoyed the contact with Ship's Officers from diverse countries.
After meeting and falling in love with the Latvian/Australian artist Sylvia Pastars and seeing her extraordinary images, Tony began painting in Canberra in 1972. A self taught artist he began exhibiting in Canberra, Australia, and his colourful paintings soon attracted interest and he won several art prizes.
Over the last 45 years he has had numerous one-person exhibitions in Australia and overseas and many with his wife, Sylvia. His work has been documented in many publications including The World Encyclopedia Of Naive Art, Outsider Art In Australia, Australian Print Makers Of The '90's, Australian Naive Art and Patricide 6: The Outsider. Tony has also written on Australian mining history and folklore and Indigenous rock art and has made a number of films, one of which, 'Haunted House' , was included in Patricide 7: Surrinema a book with accompanying DVD on Surrealism and the cinema.
Images: Tony Convey as a boy in 1949; Tony in the 1970s; Tony photographed at an early exhibition; Tony Convey, 2017 (pic by Sylvia Convey).
After meeting and falling in love with the Latvian/Australian artist Sylvia Pastars and seeing her extraordinary images, Tony began painting in Canberra in 1972. A self taught artist he began exhibiting in Canberra, Australia, and his colourful paintings soon attracted interest and he won several art prizes.
Over the last 45 years he has had numerous one-person exhibitions in Australia and overseas and many with his wife, Sylvia. His work has been documented in many publications including The World Encyclopedia Of Naive Art, Outsider Art In Australia, Australian Print Makers Of The '90's, Australian Naive Art and Patricide 6: The Outsider. Tony has also written on Australian mining history and folklore and Indigenous rock art and has made a number of films, one of which, 'Haunted House' , was included in Patricide 7: Surrinema a book with accompanying DVD on Surrealism and the cinema.
Images: Tony Convey as a boy in 1949; Tony in the 1970s; Tony photographed at an early exhibition; Tony Convey, 2017 (pic by Sylvia Convey).
Bellarine Peninsular 2018
The colours and textures of the Bellarine Peninsular's beautiful beaches have stirred the imagination of self-taught artist, Tony Convey. But rather than topographical studies, his paintings are visionary evocations of the landscapes where the ever-changing blues and greens of the water are enhanced by the rich details of the life found in the liminal zone; the exquisite metallic sheen of mussel shells, the sensual sway of sea weeds, the flashing movements of fish and the numinous hues of jelly fish combine to create a wondrous palimpsest which conjures up these landscapes in a new and original way.
The colours and textures of the Bellarine Peninsular's beautiful beaches have stirred the imagination of self-taught artist, Tony Convey. But rather than topographical studies, his paintings are visionary evocations of the landscapes where the ever-changing blues and greens of the water are enhanced by the rich details of the life found in the liminal zone; the exquisite metallic sheen of mussel shells, the sensual sway of sea weeds, the flashing movements of fish and the numinous hues of jelly fish combine to create a wondrous palimpsest which conjures up these landscapes in a new and original way.
Outsider music
Tony has made music for many decades. He uses conventional instruments, found objects and voice. Sylvia also features.
|
Enchantment:
Paintings by Tony Convey
Paintings by Tony Convey
In 2014, Tony's solo exhibition Enchantment, curated by Sylvia Convey, was held at Callan Park Gallery, Sydney College of the Arts. The above image offers a rare glimpse of Tony's work, beautifully hung in the old insane asylum in Rozelle from 31 July to 30 August, Sydney. Following is an extract from the Introduction featured in the catalogue written by Sylvia Convey:
Tony Convey's work has usually been discussed in the context of naive or outsider art. However, it also has affinities with psychedelic art, which attempts to evoke the effects of psychoactive substances on perception and visual cognition.
I have a unique understanding of Tony's art as I was present when he began painting, and I witnessed, from an intimate perspective, the development of his imagery over 43 years. His first painting, Bird Landing On Water, which I watched him create, was his attempt to capture the effects of a shared visionary experience in Melbourne's Botanical Gardens... Even though the finished work frustrated him, Tony could immediately see he achieved some of his intentions, and from that moment, he was a committed painter. The visionary aspect of his oeuvre is most fully realised in the scores of small, delicately worked paintings he has created over the last three decades...
[I]nitially, much of his imagery was concerned with storytelling, which I related to his Celtic ancestry, however he later adopted a more spontaneous method of working in which he sought to gain a kind of instant revelation from the act of painting itself. He always tried to surprise himself with this approach, and the resulting works provided a visionary complement to his narrative images. The landscape is a constant in these paintings. Not the topographical entity we measure and frame, but the transfigured realm we experience as loves... as the curator Jenny McFarlane, wrote: "Tony Convey's imagery reaches outside the normal language of art and performs the far more basic function of making magic visible."
Tony Convey's work has usually been discussed in the context of naive or outsider art. However, it also has affinities with psychedelic art, which attempts to evoke the effects of psychoactive substances on perception and visual cognition.
I have a unique understanding of Tony's art as I was present when he began painting, and I witnessed, from an intimate perspective, the development of his imagery over 43 years. His first painting, Bird Landing On Water, which I watched him create, was his attempt to capture the effects of a shared visionary experience in Melbourne's Botanical Gardens... Even though the finished work frustrated him, Tony could immediately see he achieved some of his intentions, and from that moment, he was a committed painter. The visionary aspect of his oeuvre is most fully realised in the scores of small, delicately worked paintings he has created over the last three decades...
[I]nitially, much of his imagery was concerned with storytelling, which I related to his Celtic ancestry, however he later adopted a more spontaneous method of working in which he sought to gain a kind of instant revelation from the act of painting itself. He always tried to surprise himself with this approach, and the resulting works provided a visionary complement to his narrative images. The landscape is a constant in these paintings. Not the topographical entity we measure and frame, but the transfigured realm we experience as loves... as the curator Jenny McFarlane, wrote: "Tony Convey's imagery reaches outside the normal language of art and performs the far more basic function of making magic visible."
I see life as a wilderness, a mysterious place and my little path through it is my way of making sense of life and the mystery of the world. And I'm really grateful that I have a way of making something of my experience that can be shared [with] others." - Tony Convey, 2015
Rites of Salvage by Tony Convey
While living in the Mitta in the mid 1980s I began making use of found objects and painting on unorthodox surfaces. Walking and drawing in the environs of the Molonglo River, a 15 minute walk from our front door, I began noticing odd pieces of scrap metal and wood which seemed to have a residue of life left in them which demanded they be reassembled into new shapes.
In 1985 I mounted an exhibition of these works, Rites of Passage... The show attracted considerable interest from fellow artists and was favourably reviewed in The Canberra Times: 'Naive and rough in his art making, Tony Convey uses visual devices which become part of a repertoire of meaningful simple symbols. Cages, ladders, the arrow, hearts, the wheel and his devil like forms, which can be translated as benign fairy visions or something more threatening, recur throughout his works.' - Sonia Baron
In 1985 I mounted an exhibition of these works, Rites of Passage... The show attracted considerable interest from fellow artists and was favourably reviewed in The Canberra Times: 'Naive and rough in his art making, Tony Convey uses visual devices which become part of a repertoire of meaningful simple symbols. Cages, ladders, the arrow, hearts, the wheel and his devil like forms, which can be translated as benign fairy visions or something more threatening, recur throughout his works.' - Sonia Baron