Luke Hardy - Lotus - Exhibition Opening

Please join us at Stanley Street Gallery for the opening celebration of Lotus by acclaimed Sydney artist Luke Hardy.

For his third solo show with Stanley Street Gallery, the work of photo artist Luke Hardy wistfully explores past lives, the power of memory and the allure of renewal.

LOTUS

an exhibition of photographs by LUKE HARDY
13 February to 1 March 2025
Opening Celebration Thursday 13th February, 6 - 8 pm

Hardy’s work brings together a variety of visual genres including the portrait, the still life and the shadow play, all in muted counterpoint, touching on themes of lost youth and reincarnation.

The lotus flower opens by day but submerges nocturnally into the waters from which it has grown, only to reappear the next day. In Hindu and Buddhist iconography, it is a symbol of resilience and rebirth.

A key image in this exhibition features a rendering of the Hindu god Vishnu, also known as Vishnu the Preserver or Restorer. He is traditionally depicted with a lotus in one of his hands as is the Buddha. Here, fragments of objects of veneration, broken and vandalised over time, are restored not in stone, gold or bronze but as ghosts of the creatures that fashioned them.

The five introspective male nudes that dominate a whole wall of the gallery appear incongruously in traditional Chinese dudou, redolent of, or nostalgic for infancies long-since outgrown. Like lotuses, perhaps, they are reverting whence they came in anticipation of lives to come.