Once again Stormie Mills hits the wonderful Friends Of Leon gallery in Sydney, and this time he’s introducing a new element to his beautiful character work – which, I have to say, I’m kind really intrigued about – fish rule.

“Stormie Mills continue to explore the fragility of the human condition and how in spite of the many challenges that life presents people continue to rise above adversity. The body of work created for A Fish Tale tells the story of a man that lives with his fish based on the writings of filmmaker Mark Strong who, was inspired by Stormie’s work “I miss my friend I want him back” painted in 2008 for his solo exhibition loss + endings = fish.
 
A Fish Tale is a series of eleven works through which Stormie tells the story. Stormie said, “I am always fascinated by people’s reaction to my work and was quite taken by Mark’s response to my characters. His story really captures the sentiment of my work and it’s been really rewarding to depict this story for this show.”
 
Stormie has long included the symbol of a fish in his work as a symbol of the fragility of life. A goldfish is often given to children as their first pet and it is through this process of looking after this fish that children are confronted with death at the passing of their pet. It is often the first time that children are confronted by death and the idea that everything comes to an end.
 
For Stormie these golden creatures stand out amongst his film noir restricted palette of black, grey and white as a celebration of life and at the same time, a reminder that we are all easily broken.”

a FISH tale (finished) from leon krasenstein on Vimeo.

Nice, looks like a really cool new body of work from Stormie Mills – head down and check it out!

Who: Stormie Mills
What: A Fish Tale
Where: Friends Of Leon Gallery, 82 Marlborough St, Surry Hills, Sydney
When: Show opens Thursday 21st November from 6pm til 8pm and runs til the 14th December