Exhibition Celebration: Nick Baylart - Speedscapes

Join Benalla Art Gallery and artist Nick Baylart to celebrate the launch of his exhibition Speedscapes.

Speedscapes captures the way the wide flat plains of north central Victoria are experienced at speed: fast glimpses of sprawling agricultural country seen most often by road or rail, across long vistas and between roadside trees. Referencing the verticality and gestural mark-making of 20th century Australian painters, these works are memories of light and lines seen throughout the Goulburn Valley and beyond, built up through layers of paper, paint, and spray.

Nick Baylart is a former paper conservator and works in a unique mixed media style developed from his training in Melbourne and in Asia. Fine layers of kōzo tissue are tinted, painted, manipulated, and torn, and painted surfaces are carefully prepared using traditional paper conservation techniques, to create atmospheric landscapes punctuated with trees, branches, and shadows.

Image: Nick BAYLART
Slow dusk [detail] 2026
synthetic polymer paint, kōzo tissue, watercolour, and spray paint on paper
29.5 x 21 cm overall (diptych)