You may know Shaun Tan, the illustrator. That’s the Shaun Tan, who won an Oscar for ‘Best Animated Short film’ for The Lost Thing. You may have also seen some of his beautiful work here in Freo at Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. Now Fremantle Arts Centre invites you the meet the other Shaun Tan, Shaun Tan the painter. It’s the very first exhibition of Shaun’s stunning paintings, which show Perth’s suburbia, where Shaun grew up.

Although I’m often recognised as an illustrator of stories, in private I see myself primarily as a painter of landscapes, particularly the suburban streets in which I grew up and continue to spend most of my time. This world is the bedrock of my imagination – a shoreline of light, space, restless silence – and my suburban paintings of the past twenty years are perhaps more self-defining than anything else I’ve created as a book or film maker. Collecting them together under the roof of Fremantle Arts Centre (a place I visited often in my youth seeking inspiration and direction) is a terrific privilege and opportunity. I hope that exhibition visitors might enjoy the same realisation as I have during my local wanderings with a sketchpad or paint-box: that the most ordinary places can also be the most mysterious. Shaun Tan, 2012

Shaun’s exhibition is opening tonight and if you’re one of the lucky ones who have registered for his (fully booked) artist talk, screening of The Lost Thing and Q&A, you’ll meet him in person tomorrow.

Shaun Tan: Suburban Odyssey
Fremantle Arts Centre
Opening Celebration Friday 18 May, 6:30pm
Exhibition runs until 15 July 2012

Meet Shaun Tan (artist talk, screening, Q&A) - FULLY BOOKED
Saturday 19 May
4.30–6.30pm
Tannock Hall, Notre Dame

Shaun Tan, Fifth Avenue Mt Lawley, 2004

Shaun Tan: Crows fighting behind a supermarket, 1998