David Jolly
Vivienne Shark LeWitt, Nightmare Abbey, 1985, oil on cigar box; Rosslynd Piggott, Eyelashes, jewels and a piece of Paris, 1987, oil on canvas; David Jolly, Intersection, 1993, enamel on glass & Spring, 1994, oil and enamel on glass, installation view, A Fictional Retrospective: Gertrude’s First Decade 1985–1995, Gertrude Contemporary, Naarm Melbourne, 2025, image courtesy and © the artists, photograph: Christian Capurro1994 - 1995
David Jolly’s practice is varied, ranging from realism to explorations of abstraction, pattern and geometry and working across oils, watercolour, drawing and photography. His noted oil on glass works entail the rendering of minute detail as an articulation of the ephemeral. Painted from photographic scenes of urban built cultures, they constitute an action of momentary inscription, reconstructing the captured photographic subject to introduce new modes of perception.
Jolly participated in the Gertrude Studio Program from 1994-1995. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne in 1992. He has shown consistently since, including shows such as The Futile City at Heide Museum of Modern Art, 2011, 2004: Australian Culture Now at ACMI & the NGV, 2004 and Primavera at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 2000. In 2016 Jolly produced a commission for the Australian War Memorial, presenting a series of paintings in response to the centenary Anzac Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli. His work is held in significant collections nationally and internationally.
