MODERN SEASONS, THE GREAT CURVE

Modern Seasons is a publication series presenting a portrait of the four seasons.

The four-part publication is a documentation of five Australian Visual Artists response to the navigation of abstracted time and causation in 2020.

As the situation of COVID-19 is changing rapidly it feels as if nothing will be as we once knew it to be. As we work towards flattening the curve people are experiencing dislocation and isolation, this publication series is to have a unique perspective from artists responding to these events.

Each artist presents an associated experience of the modern seasons with the last presentation of summer to conjure a sense of hope in a time of unease.

Mark Schaller presents Botanicus Fantasticus, Autumn with his en plein air painting performances at the Royal Botanical Gardens that playfully investigates urban retreats as spaces of ‘wild’ nature interactions and interventions.

Barry Tate and Matthew Clarke are outsider artists, presenting The winter of discontent, the great indoors. Rooms of quiet contemplation and societal commentaries of Australian extravagance and preoccupation of the self.

Christine Johnson presents the future and past of Spring, a time of resilience and growth. Johnson’s large paintings and film work focus on the story of Eileen Ramsay, in her time of grief at the loss of her two brothers at Gallipoli, she began to study growth cycles in botany.

Shannon Smiley presents Summer, with is mindful and observational investigations of urban landscapes. The works present a gratification towards little urban sanctuaries that we often walk past without a second glance.

MARK SCHALLER | BOTANICAL FANTASTICUS
1 MAY – 1 JULY 2020
OPENING | MAY DAY | FRIDAY 11am- 6pm

Fox Galleries is proud to present Botanicus Fantasticus, a new body of work by Mark Schaller.

Informed by the natural world, literature and the universe, Schaller takes his painting kit beyond the studio to investigate the trope of ‘artist studying nature’. Like many artists before, Schaller is assuming the role of the romantic, painting en plein air. He is performing painting in the Royal Botanical Gardens, encapsulated between two worlds; the garden as wild nature and urban interactions and intervention.

Schaller’s paintings and sculptures are responding to undesirable changes to nature and climate. Surrounded by the urban environment, human interaction and intervention, Schaller embraces this disrupted sense of the sublime. The result is a fervent series of conversational paintings between humans and nature. Botanical shapes intertwined with the human figure appearing and reappearing in the bold and colourful post-sublime universe Schaller explores. Animated shapes that make a scene.

Please contact the gallery to make an appointment, all enquiries can be directed to
rebecca@foxgalleries.com.au or visit our online gallery to see the spectacular botanical works of Mark Schaller.

MARK DAVIS | THIS FLEETING WORLD
13 JUNE – 4 JULY
Fox Galleries Stockroom Exhibition

Fox Galleries is proud to present This Fleeting World, a series of sculptural landscapes by Mark Davis. This painting series calls to action awareness of our changing landscape. The bold brushstrokes render a remapping and reimagining of familiar scenes with attention and curiosity. Mark Davis’ landscapes deviate from the norm with his confident brush strokes, palatable hues and enthralling visual trickery.