Artist Talk: David Egan

For Actually Energy Help Light, David Egan presented several different bodies of paintings and text. A new work was painted using pigment from the beautiful yet noxious flowering plant Morning Glory, a climbing weed that competes with cultivated plants by growing laterally, stopping light from penetrating its blanketing surface.

David Egan, b. 1989, lives and works as an artist in Melbourne. He graduated from a BA in Fine Art, Curtin University, 2011 and a BA in Fine Art (Honors), Monash University, 2013. Solo exhibitions include: Underground Museum Tactic, St Heliers Street Gallery, Melbourne, 2014; Painting Playing Cards, Substation, Melbourne, 2014; Plantings, Adult Contemporary, Perth, 2014; The Yellow Curtain, Institute of Jamais Vu, London, 2012; The unknown by the more unknown, OK Gallery, Perth, 2012; and Seria Ludo, Galleria, Perth, 2011. Group exhibitions include: BLOOD, SUGAR, SEX, MAGIC, Slopes, Melbourne, 2014; Hire a magician to speak on your behalf, he is a great entertainer and the audience is blown away, TCB Art Inc., Melbourne, 2013; and Wilderness Years, OK Gallery, Perth, 2011. Egan has undertaken artist residencies at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, 2012; Fremantle Arts Centre, 2012; and Amstel 41, Amsterdam, 2013. He has also worked collaboratively with Patrick Miller as Natural Mystery, which existed as an exhibition and project space in their shared residential garage in Perth, 2011–12. Their program culminated with an exhibition at Fremantle Arts Centre, 2013, titled Magical Signs: Exchange and Utopia, that ran alongside the publication of a compendium of the same name.