Fergus Binns
2012 - 2013
Recently I have been making landscape paintings with multiple narratives, which combine various styles, both figurative and abstract. The paintings often reference personal and historical myths and philosophies, with the narratives driven by ideas about identity, death, popular and social culture and the environment. There are often dark undercurrents in the paintings and at times the scenes can allude to violence on a physical or psychological level. This can be offset or diffused by a humourous situation or figure who turns the whole scene into something rather absurd.
The pictorial plane is often saturated with scenes that are fractured and chaotic, but that always seem to resolve themselves in dialogue, as every aspect of the picture holds equal importance. This could be likened to an eco system that, despite all the chaos and dysfunction, seems to find a balance. It is all tied back into nature in the purest sense. It's quite absurd, but sort of beautiful at the same time.
Fergus Binns grew up in Lismore, NSW before moving to Melbourne in 1999 where he studied at the Brighton Bay, Art, Design and Photography program in Elwood, followed by a Bachelor of Fine Art at the Victorian College of the arts from 2000-2002.
Binns has exhibited in Australia and overseas and has work in various public and private collections. Some recent solo exhibitions include;Ali Baba Squinting and the Watership Wind Band, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2012; Toy Paintings, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, 2011; Toy Paintings, Chalk Horse, Sydney, 2010; Missing Bushwalkers on Found Landscapes, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, 2008; Work From Garage, Chalk Horse, Sydney, 2008; Recent group exhibitions include Thank you for the days: My teenage years, curated by Djon Mundine, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore, 2011; Impossible Objects I, organised by Melissa Loughnan and Helen Hughes, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2011; Home, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore, 2008; MAN: Depicting Contemporary Masculinity, Penrith Regional Gallery, Penrith, 2008; Primavera 2006, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006; Big In Japan, Gallery Side 2, Tokyo, Japan, 2006.
Fergus Binns is represented by Utopian Slumps. www.utopianslumps.com