He/Him/They. Artist, Writer & Curator. Born in Melbourne, Australia. Drawing, Installation, Media Theory, Insititutional Critique & Posthumanism.
Salazar Quas has exhibited amongst the atelierhouses of Vienna, Geneva and Paris, has studied undergrad in Austria and has worked previously with rock bands in London (’90’s) and with filmmakers in New York (early noughts).
Quas makes use of materials of industry such as metal armatures, heat-rolled steel plates, guitar wire and fibreglass mesh tape, plus natural artefacts such as sandstone, bluestone, ocean rocks and an array of papers, cottons and soft & hard substrates to help support and expand his abstract line drawings. Through small to medium-format works titled ‘Waveform Series’ (ca. 2018-2024), Quas details the minutiae of repetition, (re)iteration and the ubiquity of organic flow. Into these works come biological queries such as muscular-skeletal activity of our bodies and the undulating adventure that repair and injury present.
Quas’ more recent body of work takes the form of large-scale installations, wall drawings that infuse with the built environment and a mixed array of media; both found and fabricated; both made of man and made of nature. These works speak to the broader context of materialism (vis á vis New Materialism) in the sense of realigning how one considers the material world as it reflects social structures from the perspective of our organic selves. This is facilitated by a practice that is placed as ‘Expanded Drawing’ (to paraphrase Rosalind Krauss).
The Posthuman interpretation of these works lean towards ecological impact, the integration of a technological world into a language in the studio that mediates through analog materials; such is the practical ‘vocabulary’ of the making process.
By adopting new and considered approaches in the studio, Quas addresses ethical practice and material empathy. The outcomes of this approach often outline the absurdity of human dominance over natural materials and the very alien-like position that we have adopted through our latent attempts to integrate and reconnect with what we might call, the Environment.
Quas has recently gained degrees from the Victorian College of the Arts / UniMelb (MCA Grad.Dip.), ANU SoA+D (MVA) and the National Art School in Sydney (MFA). He is currently not engaged with any institution in a pedagogic capacity.
Salazar Quas currently lives on Phillip Island and works between Melbourne & Sydney, Australia. He is of Austrian & Chinese heritage, owns no dog and bodysurfs almost daily.
[updated 12th Dec.2024]
__
[Artist Resumé 2024]
[portfolio 2019 pdf]
[Prof Gallery CV]
Salazar Quas has exhibited amongst the atelierhouses of Vienna, Geneva and Paris, has studied undergrad in Austria and has worked previously with rock bands in London (’90’s) and with filmmakers in New York (early noughts).
Quas makes use of materials of industry such as metal armatures, heat-rolled steel plates, guitar wire and fibreglass mesh tape, plus natural artefacts such as sandstone, bluestone, ocean rocks and an array of papers, cottons and soft & hard substrates to help support and expand his abstract line drawings. Through small to medium-format works titled ‘Waveform Series’ (ca. 2018-2024), Quas details the minutiae of repetition, (re)iteration and the ubiquity of organic flow. Into these works come biological queries such as muscular-skeletal activity of our bodies and the undulating adventure that repair and injury present.
Quas’ more recent body of work takes the form of large-scale installations, wall drawings that infuse with the built environment and a mixed array of media; both found and fabricated; both made of man and made of nature. These works speak to the broader context of materialism (vis á vis New Materialism) in the sense of realigning how one considers the material world as it reflects social structures from the perspective of our organic selves. This is facilitated by a practice that is placed as ‘Expanded Drawing’ (to paraphrase Rosalind Krauss).
The Posthuman interpretation of these works lean towards ecological impact, the integration of a technological world into a language in the studio that mediates through analog materials; such is the practical ‘vocabulary’ of the making process.
By adopting new and considered approaches in the studio, Quas addresses ethical practice and material empathy. The outcomes of this approach often outline the absurdity of human dominance over natural materials and the very alien-like position that we have adopted through our latent attempts to integrate and reconnect with what we might call, the Environment.
Quas has recently gained degrees from the Victorian College of the Arts / UniMelb (MCA Grad.Dip.), ANU SoA+D (MVA) and the National Art School in Sydney (MFA). He is currently not engaged with any institution in a pedagogic capacity.
Salazar Quas currently lives on Phillip Island and works between Melbourne & Sydney, Australia. He is of Austrian & Chinese heritage, owns no dog and bodysurfs almost daily.
[updated 12th Dec.2024]
__
[Artist Resumé 2024]
[portfolio 2019 pdf]
[Prof Gallery CV]
