Creating otherworldly and surreal new environments, Clinton Gorst works predominantly in analogue collage. He started collaging at a young age when his love of music led to creating his own bespoke 7" inch record sleeves of his favourite artists. Living in London in the '90s led to a heightened interest in graphic design, which he then studied at National Design college in Wellington, New Zealand. Simultaneously he had his first solo exhibition of collages at Neut Gallery, and after graduating in 2001 he relocated to Sydney to focus on his visual career.

 

Gorst’s works are created by combining dozens of meticulously hand cut pieces. Using only original pages from vintage books as resources, never colour copies, gives his work a retro-futuristic vibe with a twist. Storytelling is an important part of his creations. Main themes often incorporate Brutalist or Modernist architecture, sci-fi and technology, music and fashion, or commenting on the worldwide climate crisis, to creating portals to another dimension. This retro-futuristic vision of space and science lead to Clinton’s significant involvement in FUTURE, his first NSW regional gallery showing at Casula Powerhouse in 2019 which was selected by ART GUIDE AUSTRALIA as one of the top 5 exhibitions to see nationwide. When he was asked to be part of BARE BONES at AIRspace projects, he returned to focus on people and identities, themes that were prominent in his early Pop-style works from the ‘90s. This human celebration continued into his recent 2023 Pride Pop Up show at Traffic Jam Galleries.

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In a full circle moment from his collage beginnings, in 2023 Gorst created his first record sleeve for Aria nominated Jazz Album of the Year Cull Portal by Lance Gurisik. Three of his photomontages artworks are used as front and back cover, and inner sleeve (see homepage).

 

Gorst is currently working on large-scale architecture pieces, letting form lead function as only collage can.