Kyle Sattler

Kyle Sattler | Paintings
25th August – 5th September 2009
Opening: Tues 25th August, 5.30 – 7pm

This August Satellite Gallery will host an exhibition of symbolic-realist art by the highly skilled painter and Western Springs resident Kyle Sattler. His works hark back to the Renaissance with their clear, finely detailed style and metaphysical subject matter, yet the paintings are made contemporary through their re-visioning of historic ideas.

On canvas Sattler uses traditional oil painting techniques and mediums that result in a bold colourist style with references to early-mid 20th century European painters such as Maurice Denis, Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Giorgio De Chirico and the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. 

Sattler honed his considerable painting skills as a trompe l’oeil artist, an occupation somewhat lost in today’s society. In this role he would use precise traditional techniques to create the illusion of marble and produce gigantic frescos. These extravagantly detailed frescos grace many elegant homes in Auckland.

Within his own art, Sattler’s symbolism references the knowledge and art of specific periods in Western history; Adam and Eve; diagrammatic depictions of early dissections; medieval envisioning of the geocentric universe; the tree of life; the skewed perspective of a Renaissance image of a classic temple.

These symbols talk about the history of our depiction of the world, and of the ways mankind has explained and understood the world through the ages. Sattler brings these images to a modern audience in order to demonstrate their continued relevance and also the extent to which they still underlie and inform our contemporary identity.