Brenton Drechsler

Brenton Drechsler (he/him) is an Australian emerging visual artist. He was born in Campbelltown, South Australia on Kaurna Country. Brenton studied at TAFE SA from 2006 to 2010 and completed an Advanced Diploma in Fashion Design and Technology. In his graduating year he won the 2010 TAFE SA Student of the Year award. Brenton was self-employed as a fashion designer until 2015. Brenton attained his Bachelor of Visual Art at Adelaide Central School of Art in 2022, winning the Hill Smith Art Advisory award for Painting and Drawing. Brenton went on to complete an Honour’s year of study in 2023, at Adelaide Central School of Art, achieving a First-Class Honours result. Brenton’s practice explores ideas around opacity, personal narrative, and orientation through the lens of his queer subjectivity. He also explores the absence of belonging to place through the materiality of paint.

“My painting practice has emerged as a part of my ongoing exploration into the materiality of paint and how I can navigate my orientation within arts practice. As a queer person growing up in Australian heteronormative culture, my lived experiences have generated a sense of ill fit that is ever-present. The ties that have emerged between my queer identity, research, and the materiality of painting has led me to an exploration of how the interconnectedness of practice can generate a sense of belonging and how that also speaks to my sexual identity. Multiplicities, binaries, repetitions, and dualities are all tropes in my work, evoking the back-and-forth nature of being queer. An ever present, non-human alter ego emerges in the form of a green and white stripe which binds my work together, present in each composition. Other reoccurring motifs, like dark skies, vintage cars, foreign urban environments, and assorted garments create a narrative that speaks to my queer subjectivity. Upon reflection, I have come to see the act of painting is an important part of orienting and finding my bearings in the world.” ~ Brenton Drechsler