The Anthromorphic Desert

Description

This work by Shane is 12/99 of a limited Edition series. It is Giclee on fine art canvas. Giclée (/ʒiːˈkleɪ/ zhee-KLAY) is a neologism (a newly coined word or expression) coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne for fine art digital prints made on inkjet printers.The name originally applied to fine art prints created on a modified Iris printer in a process invented in the late 1980s. It has since been used loosely to mean any fine-art, most of the times archival, printed by inkjet. It is often used by artists, galleries, and print shops to suggest high quality printing, but since it is an unregulated word it has no associated warranty of quality.The word giclée was adopted by Jack Duganne around 1990. He was a printmaker working at Nash Editions. He wanted a name for the new type of prints they were producing on a modified Iris printer, a large-format, high-resolution industrial prepress proofing inkjet printer on which the paper receiving the ink is attached to a rotating drum and that they had adapted for fine-art printing. He was specifically looking for a word that would differentiate them from regular commercial Iris prints then used as proofs in the commercial printing industry. "Giclée" is based on the French word gicleur, the French technical term for a jet or a nozzle, and the verb coming from it "gicler" (to squirt out). "Une giclée" (noun) means a spurt of some liquid. The French verb form gicler means to spray, spout, or squirt. Duganne settled on the noun giclée.(Wikipedia) Born and raised in the suburbs of Adelaide Southern Australia, Shane soon developed a great affinity for the ‘bush’ and the strange creatures that inhabit the arid lands of the Australian desert. Many a school break was spent visiting the vast outback sheep stations, (Shane’s father was an accountant for a pastoralists firm.) Soon, the vibrant colours and stark light and contrast, were forever etched into his mind’s eye. Shane began his full time art career in 1992, in the dry, arid regions of central Australia, in, of all places, a mining town. His paintings soon built a solid reputation with galleries and the public. The birth of his iconic ‘Chrome Kangaroos’ forever solidified his reputation as a significant artist, with a highly individual style. The kangaroos soon anthropomorphised into a chrome female form, subjects that are both still carried to this day. Shane’s paintings are a strange combination of realism, fantasy art, sci-fi, surrealism and political satire.(This extract is from http://www.visionaryart.net.au/shane_gehlert3.htm)