Kevin McKay
Millers Point Streetscapes
8 - 29 June 2024
Opening drinks
Saturday 8 June 4-6pm
Flinders Street Gallery
61 Flinders Street, Surry Hills, NSW, Australia
flindersstreetgallery.com
“This exhibition focuses on a small harbourside suburb between The Rocks, the birthplace of Sydney, and Barangaroo, its newest precinct. Its name dates back to the early days of settlement when an ex-convict, Jack Leighton built a windmill and a military sergeant, Thomas Miller, received a land grant here. Jack the Miller's Point eventually lost the convict’s name, which may speak to its layered history and the competing forces that shaped it.
Millers Point began organically with waterside workers building ramshackled homes on the steep sandstone ridge. Building material for the growing colony was quarried here, creating cliffs that isolated this community from the city it helped to build. Road cuttings opened up transport corridors and a series of demolitions and redevelopments followed in response to an outbreak of bubonic plague and the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The process of gentrification continued in the 2000s with the relocation of public housing residents in the pursuit of real estate capital.
I began this series with plein-air ventures on Argyle Street in the short space from the Kent Street intersection to Dalgety Rd where heritage buildings retain their historical character, despite some contemporary repurposing. These include the old Post Office, shops, pubs and residential structures built in sandstone and brick with decorative Edwardian finishing.
Every streetscape is marked by street furniture and signage that imposes order on the traffic but which also disrupts the view. I enjoyed resolving a kind of equilibrium in this discord. Likewise, I responded to the roadworks on Hickson Rd, where the state of flux and re-ordering may be viewed as a constant in the city.
The historical is contrasted by the contemporary city where the Crown Tower at Barangaroo looms crudely. Its phallic form may find its opposite in the Hickson Rd cutting. The gentle curve of its passage through the sandstone substrate is framed by arched bridges, while the drama of light and shadow brings a moment of stillness to this transient space.” - Kevin McKay, 2024
Opening drinks Sat 8 June 2024
PHOTO - JASON MARTIN
PHOTO - ANNA LOCKWOOD
PHOTO - ANNA LOCKWOOD
Kent Street corner, 2024
Oil on canvas 60 x 45 cm - $2.200
Millers Point Post Office, 2024
Oil on canvas on board 20 x 28.5 cm - $900
Oswald Bond Store, 2024
Oil on canvas on board 28.5 x 20 cm - SOLD
Kent Street study, 2024
Oil on canvas on board 28.5 x 20 cm - $900
Argyle Lane, 2024
Oil on canvas on board 30 x 40 cm - $1,300
High Street corner, 2024
Oil on canvas on board 30 x 40 cm - SOLD
The Bridge, 2022
Oil on canvas on board 30 x 40 cm - SOLD
Twin terraces, 2024
Oil on canvas on board 30 x 40 cm - SOLD
Munn Street Bridge, 2024
Oil on canvas on board 60 x 90 cm - $3750
Palisade Hotel, 2024
Oil on board 30.5 x 23 cm - SOLD
Two bridges study, 2024
Oil on canvas on board 20 x 28.5 cm - $900
Argyle Stairs, 2024
Oil on canvas on board 28.5 x 20 cm - $900
Two bridges - Hickson Road, 2024
Oil on canvas 50 x 75 cm - SOLD
Twin terraces study, 2024
Oil on canvas on board 20 x 28.5 cm - SOLD
Dalgety Road vista, 2024
Oil on canvas on board 30 x 45 cm - $1400
Flat 2 - 57 Dalgety Road, 2024
Oil on canvas 50 x 50 cm - $2000
Windmill Street Corner, 2024
Oil on canvas 45 x 60 cm - $2200
Windmill St alley, 2024
Oil on canvas on board 20 x 28.5 cm - $900
Additional selected work
National Art School Chapel, 2023
Oil on canvas on board 28.5 x 20 cm - SOLD
Building 27 - National Art School, 2023
Oil on canvas on board 28.5 x 20 cm - $900
Building 25 - National Art School, 2021
Oil on handmade paper 87 x 118 cm - $5000
Duxford St Paddington, 2019
Oil on board 30.5 x 23 cm - $1,000
194 Underwood St Paddington, 2019
Oil on board 30.5 x 23 cm - SOLD
Albury Hotel - Oxford St Paddinton, 2019
Oil on board 41 x 41 cm - $1500
Garage - Melrose Ln Woollahra, 2019
Oil on board 25 x 40 cm - $1200
Eternal Blue - Windsor St Woollahra, 2019
Oil on board 30 x 40 cm - $1300
Smart car - 48 Jersey Rd Woollahra, 2019
Oil on board 30 x 25 cm - $1,050
Mound - Elizabeth Place Paddington, 2023
Oil on board 20 x 28.5 cm - $900
Bondi Rd Post Office, 2023
Oil on board 20 x 28.5 cm - $900
Big Blue Building - North Bondi, 2023
Oil on board 20 x 28.5 cm - $900
School Zone - Ewos Pde Cronulla, 2017
Oil on board 25.5 x 40.5 cm - $1200
132 Ewos Pde Cronulla, 2017
Oil on board 25.5 x 35.5 cm - $1100
The Painter, 2024
Oil on canvas 80 x 60 cm - NFS
Pavilion, 2023
Oil on handmade paper 87 x 118 cm - $5,000
Oak Park Pavilion V, 2017
Oil on board 23 x 35.5 cm - $1,100
Lifeguard - Cronulla Pavilion, 2020
Oil on board 30.5 x 23 cm - $1,000
Oak Park BBQ - Cronulla, 2017
Oil on board 20 x 80 cm - $1,400
Ellipse - Centennial Park, 2023
Oil on canvas on board 20 x 28.5 cm - $900
