KOGARAH is the star attraction in a new art exhibition that opened at the suburb's Library and Cultural Centre this week.
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Sutherland artist Kevin McKay has focused his eye on the suburb, painting its buildings and urban landscape in his realist style for his exhibition You Are Here, Paintings of Kogarah.
McKay, 49, chose Kogarah for a number of reasons.
He likes to paint the places he sees on his daily commute from his home in Sutherland to his studio in St Peters.
Kogarah marks the halfway point and its historic post office, St George Hospital and new building sites give plenty of visual stimulation.
It is also where he started to study art, at St George TAFE from 2002 to 2004.
This was an inspirational turning point.
He was working in aged care and had gone to St George TAFE to enrol in a Certificate of Community Care.
"But I saw the art course and realised that it was want I really wanted to do," he said.
"I was inspired by a man I cared for who was in his 80s.
"He had once had the opportunity to become an opera singer but his father had made him become an engineer.
"He regretted he had never followed his dream. He inspired me to follow mine."
Following his time at St George TAFE, McKay went to the National Art School in 2011 and won a scholarship to study art at the British School in Rome.
His first solo exhibition was at the Hazelhurst Gallery in 2010. For his second solo exhibition he has returned to the place where his art career started.
"I respond to what I am experiencing in the landscape I encountered on the way to art school at Kogarah," he said.
"These are things that punctuate the mundane journey. Kogarah is a place of transience for people who come and go to the hospital, a centre or fixed point in transit. Kogarah seems to epitomise the idea."
His exhibition of 22 paintings focuses on buildings that people may pass every day but not really notice, such as the Kogarah station car park and the Kogarah Mecca building site.
You Are Here, Paintings of Kogarah is showing at the Kogarah Library and Cultural Centre until August 3.
Opening hours are Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 7pm, Saturday, 10am to 4pm and Sunday, 10am to 1pm.
More of Kevin McKay's work: kevinmckayart.com
