David Bromley's large, vibrant canvasses present figurative expressionism in a Pop Art manner and have engaged the viewer for over twenty years. Bromley is known for his graphic brushwork, intuitively capturing a facial feature with just one swipe of the brush. This striking aesthetic is combined with heavy layering of paint, applied until the boundaries between the colour of the background, foreground and subject are indistinguishable. We cannot be sure where one passage of colour begins and another ends.
Bromley’s work is defined by two major series, the Boys Own Annual work and his iconic female nudes. The former draws on imagery from Boy's Own annuals and old magazines, and explores the themes of childhood innocence, lost and found. The enigmatic paintings vacillate between nostalgia and symbolism and in some senses can be seen as metaphors for the challenges of the adult world.
The female nudes belong to both the tradition of portraiture and to the contemporary realm of female imagery as seen in film and magazines. The traditional female nude of art history is no where to be seen, in Bromley’s work she is supplanted with a commanding and seductive femme fatale, who knowingly reciprocates the viewer’s stare.
Listed among Australian Art Collectors 50 most collectable artists, Bromley has exhibited in London, Paris, Tokyo, New York and Singapore. His work appears in numerous private and corporate collections throughout Australia, including Artbank, Flinders University and the state galleries of South Australia and Western Australia, as well as in London, Paris, Tokyo, Johannesburg and the United States. Bromley is also increasingly in demand as a portraitist. He has been a finalist four times in the Archibald Prize and the painter of some famous visages, including filmmaker Scott Hicks, actor Hugo Weaving and pop-star Kylie Minogue.
