Sean Crowley – Recent Paintings and Drawings,
November 2025
by Joe Frost
The city of Sydney’s inner suburbs arrived at their enduring layout in the later 19th century,as land expropriated from Gadigal society was cleared for industrial districts and rows ofterrace houses. The streets have since been worn smooth by the traffic of generations andtoday these suburbs are a complex synthesis: splendid places, sometimes ragged, built upondispossession; formed by many hands and softened by nature.
These places are where Sean Crowley finds the vital stimulus for his work. From his earliestdrawings of the streets, gardens and interiors of his home city, he understood that theappearance of a place is elusive: it arises as the eye roams, inviting the artist towards aninterpretation that is observant but not too beholden to the fixed outlines of objects.Crowley’s drawn line pulses, staggers and weaves; he finds unexpected connections throughspace as he draws, improvising with colour to evoke sensation. Even when he is representingdegraded places, the energy that propels his work is affirmative of life. While Crowleytrained and has worked as an architect, there is nothing utopian in his attitude to the city; notheories that hold sufficient sway to dull his appreciation of the improbable blend of beautyand grit he finds in the world.
In painting, Crowley’s motifs attain an almost symbolic resonance. It is as though a veil hasbeen drawn across reality in his latest works, quietening the buzz of the suburbs and revealinga space of deep, emotive tonality. Like a game of hide and seek, Crowley treats the pictureplane as a field upon which forms may be pulled forward for contemplation or embedded intothe intensely patterned ground. Fittingly for an artist with a keen sense of play, many of thesepaintings depict subjects associated with childhood discovery: a treehouse, a swing set or theovergrown corner of a garden. Even functional subjects are imbued with enchantment in thegrand sweep of these compositions, which are not solely depictions of places seen, but anartist’s reflection on how painting can give form to the elusive experience of a complex andbeloved place.
November 2025
by Joe Frost
The city of Sydney’s inner suburbs arrived at their enduring layout in the later 19th century,as land expropriated from Gadigal society was cleared for industrial districts and rows ofterrace houses. The streets have since been worn smooth by the traffic of generations andtoday these suburbs are a complex synthesis: splendid places, sometimes ragged, built upondispossession; formed by many hands and softened by nature.
These places are where Sean Crowley finds the vital stimulus for his work. From his earliestdrawings of the streets, gardens and interiors of his home city, he understood that theappearance of a place is elusive: it arises as the eye roams, inviting the artist towards aninterpretation that is observant but not too beholden to the fixed outlines of objects.Crowley’s drawn line pulses, staggers and weaves; he finds unexpected connections throughspace as he draws, improvising with colour to evoke sensation. Even when he is representingdegraded places, the energy that propels his work is affirmative of life. While Crowleytrained and has worked as an architect, there is nothing utopian in his attitude to the city; notheories that hold sufficient sway to dull his appreciation of the improbable blend of beautyand grit he finds in the world.
In painting, Crowley’s motifs attain an almost symbolic resonance. It is as though a veil hasbeen drawn across reality in his latest works, quietening the buzz of the suburbs and revealinga space of deep, emotive tonality. Like a game of hide and seek, Crowley treats the pictureplane as a field upon which forms may be pulled forward for contemplation or embedded intothe intensely patterned ground. Fittingly for an artist with a keen sense of play, many of thesepaintings depict subjects associated with childhood discovery: a treehouse, a swing set or theovergrown corner of a garden. Even functional subjects are imbued with enchantment in thegrand sweep of these compositions, which are not solely depictions of places seen, but anartist’s reflection on how painting can give form to the elusive experience of a complex andbeloved place.