Nigel Sense is an up-and-coming Australian artist.  His latest collection, ‘21st Moments’ is up at Angela Tandori Fine Art.  Here is an interview with Sense about himself, his art and the Aussie identity.   

Regarding your works of AFL, rugby and tennis players - are you a sports fan?

No I’m not a sports fan at all. I’m interested in painting what a male in Australian society is supposed to be. For example, loving sport, eating steak, into driving cars love to BBQ and so on but I don’t do any of those things. I seem to not fit the Australian male identity so I paint what I think I should be, or what we expect an aussie bloke to be.  I see my sport painting like religious paintings, paintings of gods that we worship. After all sport is our new religion isn’t it?

I also really love your works of couples, especially the 'I love Tinder' one.  I find it nice and unsettling.  Why this particular reference?

Nice and unsettling is a great way to see these paintings. Are these paintings about love or sex? I like that the viewer has the right to make up their mind whether they see the painting as a positive or negative.

How much of your work is indented to be critical of culture?