Amber Alcock

Surrealist painter Amber Alcock, a 2022 graduate of the Michaelis School of Fine Art, is redefining the narrative of 'care' through her evocative and unsettling artworks. An award-winning artist, Alcock received both the prestigious Simon Gerson and Judy Steinberg awards for her distinctive painting style upon her graduation.

In a world often marked by apathy, Alcock’s work champions the concepts of fragility, tenderness, and conscientiousness as potent tools of preservation. Her surreal compositions are a battleground where horror and charm, humour and menace, awareness and ignorance converge. Through these juxtapositions, she aims to provoke a "new wariness and awareness" in the viewer.

Alcock's art delves into the complex and often fraught relationship between humanity, nature, and the animal kingdom. Drawing inspiration from art history and her own sense of personal power and helplessness, she uses the lens of fantasy and surrealism to cast a light on pressing ethical, personal, humanitarian, and ecological concerns. Her work does not seek to provide answers but rather to make evident the profound consequences of a collective lack of genuine care.

"Alcock is fascinated by the inexplicably large galaxy of relational modes, transfused mythologies and histories that govern our attending of the relationship between humanity, the animal and nature," states a release about her work. Her paintings serve as a visual exploration of these intricate dynamics, prompting a re-evaluation of our place within the natural world.