ART SERIES
INSPIRED BY THE CULTURE AND ESSENCE OF AUSTRALIA
Lara’s gestural paintings in each of her art series are designed to capture the colour, energy, movement, life force and emotion that lies beneath the surface of Australia’s natural and beautiful landscape.
TERRITORIAN
TERRITORIAN was inspired by my recent trekking adventures to Kakadu National Park, Litchfield National Park, Kings Canyon, Alice Springs, The Larapinta Trail, Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Central Australia in the Northern Territory. On these treks, I immersed myself in the energy, rhythm, and connection of the native flora, fauna and landscape.
The colours of the Northern Territory are prominent in this series; green represents new growth and the land’s ability to regenerate itself, dark charcoal grey symbolises the burning-off periods, red is reminiscent of the rust centre and the blue of the waterways.
Like this sacred land, all the organic colours, forms and lines I painted are connected and in harmony, reflecting the countryside’s cyclical life cycle and connection.
The Northern Territory’s landscapes are like a magnetic field; everything runs to the centre. I wanted to parallel this series by creating a visual force that captures the viewer’s attention.
LAVA LAMP SERIES
My Lava Lamp Series is inspired by the latent energy within the vast and ever changing Australian landscape. The range of different tonal compositions is indicative of the changing seasons; the warm pinks symbolising Summer, fiery oranges reminiscent of Autumn, the deep browns of Winter and the vibrant greens of Spring. Through documenting these different colours in an almost poetic and spiritual manner, I hope to translate the harmony and fluidity between each Australian season. True to the series name, the luminous and organic shapes that dance effortlessly throughout the composition, like forms in a lava lamp, have a cohesion and unity between them, the lines, colours and forms morphing in and out of one another. This rhythm and harmony is indicative of the symbiotic relationship between man and the natural environment, demonstrating how individuals are co-dependent and heavily reliant on the changing seasons and everything they can reap from the Australian landscape.
SCENTS OF AUSTRALIA
Celebrate the Scents of Australia.
Each year through CREATIVE EXCHANGE, Sydney-based artist Lara Scolari invites a fellow creative to collaborate alongside her in her Balmain studio and home.
2022’s Creative Exchange is a celebration of the collaboration between Lara Scolari and Kim Harding of Plain & Simple Australia.
Combining Kim’s expertise with perfume and Lara’s rich exploration of Australia’s native landscape, together the two creatives designed a range of products that embody all the senses with sight, touch, sound, taste, and smell.
Lara Scolari’s large scale abstracted works titled ‘Scents of Australia’ were inspired by Kim’s Plain & Simple’s scents and ethos.
Through fusing Kim’s scents of plant extracts (essential oils) and Lara’s painterly interpretation of such scents, individuals can experience a multifaceted and sensory engagement with the scents of the environment around us.
The exhibition ‘Scents of Australia’ will have opening night on May 5th, 2022, from 6pm-8pm.
The exhibition will continue showing at Lara Scolari Gallery located in Balmain until May 23rd, 2022.
FLIGHT 2021
Lara’s most exciting body of work thus far, FLIGHT expresses the power of freedom and healing that is realised through our connection to a bird spirit animal.
In times of grief, despair or illness, we are often repeatedly visited by a ‘spirit’ bird. Like a friend that pops in and keeps you in check, the spirit bird brings energy, medicine and meaning. Usually an Australian native species, the spirit bird encourages strength and liberation, inspires us to focus on our unique qualities and kindles both beginnings and endings.
Symbolising acceptance and helping us to let go, our spirit bird is sometimes also referred to as a ‘medicine bird’. It connects the spirit with the earth and thus, ‘as above, so below’.
PEOPLES 2021
Celebrate the Fusion of Fashion & Art
Each year Lara Scolari invites a fellow creative to collaborate, hosting the CREATIVE EXCHANGE within her space in Balmain.
2021’s Creative Exchange has formed the Peoples Exhibition where Balmain’s hottest contemporary emerging artists Tara Eales and Lara Scolari have combined to create a surreal world of fashion and art.
Sydney based talent; Tara Eales is a new kid on the textile art scene. Tara’s sculptures incorporate mindfully sourced decorative fabrics and quirky trim, honouring her 20 yearlong involvement in the fashion industry. Eales’ experience in fashion design, apparel production and education are recognised in each and every piece.
Lara Scolari’s inspired works of Tara’s sculptures give opportunity to experience the personalities and energy of the “Peoples”. Her stunning large scale abstracted landscapes are back drops to Tara’s sculptures & also give the viewers passage to submerse into the dreamscape world of both artists.
Textural and layered, both artists have developed processes creating considered form, line, colour and tone within their works.
Peoples Exhibition’s opening night event is 3rd June 2021 from 6-8pm (afterwards celebrations will continue at the Unity Hall Hotel) & the exhibition will continue showing at Lara Scolari Gallery until 13th June 2021.
VIM VITAE 2020
Lara Scolari's freshest body of work, "Vim Vitae," expresses Australia's life force & essence.
Inspired by memory, meditation, & music, these gestural paintings explore multilayered, veiled organic design elements using a colour palette in sync with our native landscape.
Lara’s “abstract expressionism” draws on various media, developed experimental techniques & processes – creating an exquisite depth that is revealed in the hidden & complex dioramas of her work.
This creativity provides an enlivened space for conversation, contemplation, and a resting place for thoughts.
ETHEREAL 2019
My Ethereal Body of work designed especially for Interior Design is a developed extension from my Contemporary Luxe series and features organic circular fluid forms. The Ethereal works are incredibly delicate and light in a way that seems not to be of this world. They are inspired by water, memory, meditation, music and the culture and essence of Australia.
I continue to explore my theme of visually capturing the unseen energy, movement, life force and emotion beneath the surface – while reflecting the palette of our natural landscape.
I am interested in how energy informs the painting and viewing process. My paintings provide a space for you, the viewer, to engage with this energy spectrum that then provokes conversation and thought. I hope that when viewing these works of energy, you are free to be transported to another state of mind.
HONG KONG 2019
An action/gestural painter, Lara Scolari (b.1972), works in an Abstract Expressionist style that explores her theme of capturing unseen life forces and emotion.
Scolari is interested in how energy informs the painting and viewing process, exploring multilayered organic forms that create an enlivening space for contemplation and a resting place for thoughts. Her work is inspired by memory, meditation, music and influenced by the Australian culture.
Lara has been selected to exhibit at the Asia Contemporary Art Show for both the Spring and Fall exhibitions, held during art week Hong Kong in spring alongside Art Central and Art Basel – this dynamic show converts four entire floors of the Conrad Hilton 6 star hotel into a metropolis of contemporary art – not to be missed! Lara then exhibits at the Affordable Art Fair Hong Kong, returning for its seventh edition in May 2019 at the prestigious Hong Kong Convention Center. Lara Scolari will join Over 115 local and international galleries and showcase a stunning collection of new and affordable contemporary artworks – to help you bring your home to life!
FLUX 2018
My work is produced in an Abstract Expressionist style that explores developed experimental techniques and processes. Building up each piece using various media, I create depth through transparent layers that reveal hidden dioramas. I continue to explore my theme of visually capturing the unseen energy, movement, life force and emotion beneath the surface – while reflecting the palette of our Australian landscape.
I am interested in how energy informs the painting and viewing process. My paintings provide a space for you, the viewer, to engage with this energy spectrum that then provokes conversation and thought. I hope that when viewing these works of energy, you are free to be transported to another state of mind.
NOCTURN 2017
My latest body of work creates an enlivening space for contemplation and a resting place for thoughts through its multilayered forms. It explores and discusses the emotional rural landscapes of the Western NSW sheep and wheat belt.
The gestural shapes, layers of ink and pastel engage with the sentiments and energy of people on the land. NOCTURN underscores the many facets of the farming community circumstance such as the undercurrents, pressures, negotiation, trade, waiting game, and ‘lay awake at night’ type expectations, including its rollercoaster ride of excitement, joy and despair all in unison.
The limited earthy palette of Burnt Sienna, Red Oxide, Payne’s Grey, Yellow Oxide and White uncovers this soul-stirring territory.
CONTEMPORARY NOIR 2017
In Lara Scolari’s paintings, multilayered circles create an enlivening space for contemplation and a resting place for thoughts. Scolari is interested in how energy informs the painting and viewing process.
When creating works, she finds herself transforming from a state of active energy into one of serene immersion. Her paintings also provide a space for the viewer to engage with this energy spectrum: from vitality to calmness. They share the nuances of her thought processes and create a place to retreat to, muse, and meditate, like being immersed in music.
In many works from Scolari’s latest series, Contemporary Noir, translucent blues and greens meet black, grey and milky white in veiled layers. These resonate with the marine glimmers of the Balmain environment in which the artist lives and works.
Others focus primarily on layers of the noir of the series title. In some paintings, speckled black circulates in a nest-like whirl. When viewing these circles of energy, we are free to be transported to another state of mind.
CONTEMPORARY LUXE 2016
Lara Scolari is a Contemporary Australian Visual Artist. She lives and works full time on her art-making practice within her vibrant, light-filled studio located in the heart of Sydney’s harbourside village of Balmain.
A gestural action painter, Lara’s work is produced in an Abstract Expressionist style that explores developed experimental techniques and processes. Lara builds up each work using various media, including archival Ink, acrylic paint, pastel & oil stick, creating depth through elegant transparent layers that reveal sumptuous hidden dioramas. The Contemporary Luxe body of work focuses on the tonal combinations of rich and luscious colour and the more straightforward considered form of the fluid organic circle, influenced in part by our Australian culture – an Island Continent surrounded by water.
Created and designed in collaboration with Sydney’s leading and award-winning interior designers, the Contemporary Luxe series of works are designed to be installed in multiples. However, each piece is visually developed, strong and striking will create impact as a stand-alone work.
Lara’s coveted artworks are beautiful in organic form, line, shape, and composition, prolifically producing considered strong bodies of work.
MONO 2015
Australian contemporary visual artist Lara Scolari’s newest series of works. The Mono body of work is produced in an Abstract Expressionist style and evokes the energy and chaos of the inner city.
Each piece is a considered composition of form that explores a limited tonal palette of black, white and sepia. Using her developed techniques and processes, Lara uses various media to build depth through transparent layers revealing hidden dioramas.
These coveted artworks are beautiful in organic line, shape and composition.
TINGLE 2015
Tingle is Lara’s fifth large scale series of work and includes over 20 mixed media works on canvas and art paper. She is working expressively, almost automatically applying layers of line, form and gradated tone in gestures.
Lara is an action painter, and her medium becomes an extension of her body, echoing my movement and emotional state. These works were created over 12 months within her Hunters Hill Residency within a purpose-built art studio overlooking the magnificent Lane Cover River and the Great North Walk.
The Tingle body of work and echo the fun and pastel palette of the famous Australian sweets “Fruit Tingles.” Lara’s energy is contagious, and you are swept away when viewing these magical works.
Lara says, “Art making for me is a form of meditation, and I try just to let go! I have learned not to get too caught up in the outcomes, but just let the process happen and the magic will come”.
AIR 2014
My work explores and manipulates new materials and exhibits developed experimental techniques, reflecting my relaxed emotional state.
I engage in the art-making process on a subconscious level, using my body and materials as a vehicle of expression, creating a dialogue between layers of abstracted organic personal, sometimes figurative and cavernous forms suggestive of internal and intimate dioramas, working expressively, almost automatically in applying layers of line, form and gradated tone in gestures.
I am an action painter, and my medium becomes an extension of my body, echoing my movement and emotional state. I aim to create depth through layers in my work and build up each layer using various media and experimental methods. I endeavour to give each line and mark vibrancy, energy, motion, mystery and emotion that the viewer can experience. I am intrigued by the complexity, hidden undercurrents and agendas involved in relationships. I have expanded and developed this concept that informs an intimate visual language of organic tone, shape, and line.
These elements generate a personal response of emotions that are expressed within my work. “As if diving beneath the surface (dreaming of what cannot be seen).”
LUDO 2011
“We are delighted to show the work of Lara Scolari at Orange Regional Gallery. She has made quite an impression in the Central West over the last few years for the vibrancy of her art as well as for her exuberant personality.
I regard Lara as a fine exponent of what some critics are calling the new wave of abstraction in Australian painting. Although her work bears certain similarities with earlier abstract artists, her work clearly belongs to the 21stCentury, in terms of her aesthetic approach to decoration and in what the paintings actually transmit to the viewer.
Expression is what elevates good abstract painting above the merely decorative, and I feel that we can learn a good deal about Lara Scolari and her milieu from her paintings –thus, they succeed as expressive objects and as fine art.”
Alan Sisley Curator Orange Regional Gallery.
LATENT 2009
“Latent – the present and accessible in the unconscious mind but not consciously expressed. The works in this exhibition are a series of emotional portraits.
Developed over 12 months, the works act as snapshots of the psyche and the latent emotions within each of us. Using the vocabulary of abstract expressionism, the painted surfaces suggest the removal of skin to examine what lies underneath, revealing the energy, confusion, and emotion of our inner life.”
Mr Kent Buchanan – Curator, WPCC Western Plain Cultural