

Stieg Persson, Pomodori Secchi, 2019. Oil on linen, 97 x 77cm. Courtesy: the artist and Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney.
Martin Browne Contemporary is pleased to present Venetian Painting, an exhibition of new paintings by Stieg Persson in association with Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne.
The paintings for the exhibition each incorporate food as the figurative element, which is a recurring trope in Persson’s painting vocabulary, along with architectural influences and allusions to street graffiti. Colour is also of particular importance. For this series, Persson limited himself to the palette of Renaissance Venetian paintings, rather than using contemporary pigments. The strategy allows each painting to expose the extraordinary colour combinations that are often overlooked in the well-known Renaissance works, where the foreground figuration takes precedence.