Fhloston Paradise

Los Angeles

Fhloston Paradise pulls together Jasper Knight, Julian Meagher and Mark Whalen – three young Australian artists, each bringing their individual take on post-media, post-Pop, post 80’s image-making together with more traditional elements of twentieth century painting practices. In oils, resin, enamels, assemblage and neon, the works in this shown have in common a deep-seated absorption of popular commercial nourishment mixed with the highly-developed internal techniques of the personal studio.

Jasper Knight is one of Australia’s most successful young artist’s; he has shown internationally and is represented across Australia. His work has consistently explored the relationship between material and subject, and between constructed object and painted surface. He uses common enamel paint, which gives a luscious surface quality, on often hardware store materials. Knight works across various media from painting to installation and sculpture. What links these works is a constructed, collage-like approach. Knight’s work engages joyously with life and modernity.

Julian Meagher is based in Sydney; he was studio-trained in Australia and Italy. Meagher’s paintings reflect a cross-cultural empathy with human ritualistic practices. Notions of acquired and inherent masculinity are constantly being played out in his paintings. Through the cool lens of clinical observation Meagher produces work that is a meditation on the act of representation – painting about painting. His images of beer bottles, orchids, and birds of paradise are painted in
oils but resemble the soft aesthetic of watercolours. His subject matter comes together in a studio practice that waves a masculine banner with a formal still life approach. His most recent series relies on the depiction of professional sportsmen as modern-day gladiators – men in battle.

As complex as the cosmos or the workings of the human mind, Mark Whalen’s pieces resemble elaborate puzzles or labyrinths, set up by the artist to challenge ones understanding of their own place in life. From his beginnings in Sydney Australia, Whalen has evolved into an artist whose meticulously crafted paintings and sculptures examine the human experience by exploring communication, emotion, sexuality, invention, interaction and ritual – all with an undercurrent of quiet absurdity. Whalen’s line precision and growing color palette is enhanced by the introduction
of light, caution and arousal, making the interaction of his subjects more accentuated and accessible. Thick, seductive layers of clear, glossy resin create a post-modern plane for the artist to explore spatial possibilities and relativity within the narrative.

Jasper Knight

Julian Meagher

Mark Whalen

Merry Karnowsky Gallery

March 9 – March 30, 2013
170 S. La Brea Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
USA

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