SPACE 3: BILLY OAKLEY

Exhibition dates : 7 - 18 June 2023
Opening Reception : Thursday 8 June 2023, 6:00 - 8.30pm.

“Happy Valley” 


Billy Oakley is South Australian born visual artist practicing with oil paint. 

Billy’s works are representational and figurative explorations of the subconscious through narrative imagery, people and place sourced from his own life. 

Deeply rich, bold and otherworldly colour illuminate solitary figures in their own environments that blur the line between real and surreal. Focusing on people and the deep personal mental worlds they create, how they exist within those spaces and the relationship outside reality has with this space. 



This show is about mens daydreaming and perceptions of what is real and how that influences their negative traits such as apathy, lethargy, and entitlement.
 This work is interested in the socialisation of young boys, the symbols and images of suburban living that manifest themselves in the metaphysical world of our dreaming. We will also be looking at how dreaming and our wakeful lived experiences are intimately linked and how they interact with one another. 
 I hypothesise in this work, that dreams play a significant role in our daily ability to construct a sound reality that we are comfortable existing within. That our deep subconscious is playing through thousands of different scenarios whilst we sleep to strengthen our ability to react and respond to current stimuli at this present moment of wakefulness in a way that is most appropriate, regardless of if we remember the content of the dream or not. Looking through the lens of a fictional young man, who does not represent the experience of the artist, I play with the themes of dreaming and the subconscious by showing a lived reality that is similar but slightly off to the observer.


@billyoakley_