It is almost impossible to discuss the work of Lynda Strong without first introducing Matthew Calandra. The two artists share a firm and at times intimate friendship. This relationship inspires much of Strong’s painting. At times she paints herself and Calandra morphing into a single form, their two heads emerging side by side from the same shoulders.
When asked why Strong paints, she replies ‘I paint to give them away, I give them away, I love to give them away.’
For Strong sociality and art are intensely interrelated. Through painting, Strong both expresses and creates her social world. As a woman who is deaf with Down syndrome, art has become a key means of communication. She creates portraits of her central friends on canvas and watercolour paper : friend’s faces are also applied like graffiti on her clothing and scrawled on random scraps of paper. These images are then shown, given and at times even slipped into bags of all those she meets. Strong’s firm line work, simplified and exaggerated forms in addition to her sensitive use of colour make it difficult for one not to be moved and intrigued by her portraits, especially when she hands you a portrait of yourself!
Exhibition History
Callan Park Gallery
Gallery ARTES
Mori Gallery
Callan Park Gallery
Hornsby TAFE Gallery
Hornsby TAFE Gallery
Hornsby TAFE Gallery
Hornsby TAFE Gallery
March 2011
October 2010
October 2009
June 2009
July 2006
July 2005
July 2004
July 2003
Studio ARTISTS:Untitled
Botanical ARTES
ARRT BOXX
Matthew and Me
Out There
Get Over it
Scaling Up
Outside the Box