about the show

At the highest level, I make work that I enjoy. It is (at least in my opinion) a vibrant and engaging body of work that is fundamentally enjoyable to consume and be drawn into while high, sober or somewhere in between. And it need not be anything more than that.

If you were inclined to go a little deeper and were looking to try to understand both it and the meaning that I have constructed around and applied to it, read on.

In reflecting on the portfolio, a number of common themes emerge. Aspects of fantasy, sexuality and lust, dream states and psychedelia, spirituality, duality, plurality, separation and wholeness, belonging and lack thereof, ecstasy and agony, depression and anxiety… the self-imposed freedom and oppression of a conscious mind imposed upon itself. These are all themes that can found to be visually articulated in some way shape or form in my work. Unsurprisingly, these are all themes and energies that have carried with them a momentum shaping my life for both the better and worse.  

Being a peculiar only child, and having lived and grown up in 7 cities across 3 countries in the Asia-Pacific, with a family dispersed throughout Australia, Europe, Canada and the States, I am somewhat rootless. My foundations are built on ever changing ground, ever crumbling and being rebuilt in a permanent state of impermanence. To this end, through my life experience and observations to date, and in having never quite hit the mark of whatever cultural zeitgeist I’ve found myself in, I have come to hold the belief that it is necessary to carry with us in life a healthy dose of delusion and likewise that it is delusion to consider that which is considered necessary by those around us, as truly necessary. This is, I think, what could most strongly be conveyed through my work, if I were forced to construct or assign a somewhat coherent unifying theme. This is also to say that I’m specially not trying to make political statements through this work. It’s an entirely personal proposition - interpret that how you will.  

However, diving all the way down, at the deepest level and at risk of sounding like a deepend metaphysical new ager… I also believe that the pieces are what they want to be. I have a sense that I am, more than anything, just the conduit that helps them achieve that. They may be informed by my life experience and brand of creative expression, but they are, ultimately, their own entities. Fragments of formless infinity that have emerged from the ether and reconfigured themselves through the guise of art by someone that has been, for whatever reason, open to receiving, and in turn making sense of life through them. Or maybe it’s just some seriously ADHD collage with a seriously self-indulgent narrative to boot… who the fuck knows.

These acrylic mount prints will only ever be available for purchase from gallery shows. Likewise, I plan to only ever producing and sell 5 of these mounted prints for a given work, regardless of however many gallery shows I end up putting on over the coming years, which I hope will be many. My intention here is to ensure the work retains both its intrinsic and commercial value and is not diluted through scale. Furthermore, each of these works holds a special place in my heart and they are in their own way, little pieces of myself, so my preference is that they hold a special place in your home and heart and are subsequently well looked after. 

I will also be donating 10% of the profit made on any given piece to the man cave, which advocates for men’s mental health and healthy expressions of masculinity in boys and men. A cause close to my heart… which I appreciate will likely raise a few eyebrows given the subject matter of my art, but hey, it’s my art show so the self-indulgent hypocrisy is my prerogative. So get bidding! You can use the QR code associated with each piece to do so.  You can also donate directly to the the man cave here, should you be so inclined. Likewise big shout out to Torquhil on the decks, Chad from Little Homie Cafe on the bar and Honey Bones for the space, thank you for bringing the vibe! I am likewise stoked that cousin Freja from Sweden, whom is soon to graduate from VCA, is also displaying some of her work, so please check it out and consider following her work/attending her graduation show. 

Finally, thank you for coming - it’s somewhat daunting to put your work out there, all the more when you carry an imposter syndrome and work in a medium such as mine that carries with stigma of pseudo-creativity, so your support is greatly appreciated. I hope you have a good time :)

… one more thing, you might notice a rather obvious lack of diversity among the characters featured in the work. I draw on a lot of vintage & pulp magazine covers from the 40s/50s/60s, and with this in mind, as I’m sure you can imagine, the depictions in these mediums of anyone other than anglo are often typically rather derogatory, so I’ve specifically chosen not to incorporate these into my work lest the meaning sitting behind the piece be misinterpreted.