Piss farting around

Jon Campbell’s latest exhibition piss farting around brings together two bodies of work created while on the Australia Council’s Greene Street Studio Residency in New York, the first in 1991, and the second in early 2015.

Before embarking on the first residency in 1991 Campbell’s work was mostly figurative, inspired by artists such as Alex Katz and Leon Golub whose work he was to encounter in the museums of New York. By the time he returned to Melbourne, text had found its way into his paintings, influenced by the language of the city around him.

Campbell's first work to include text, What a body of work 1991, is on show as part of this exhibition. The large two paneled painting combines his early figurative style and love of music with language taken from the billboards of New York, drawing parallels with the more recent hard-edged text paintings Campbell is now known for.  What hasn’t changed is the artist’s eye and ear for the vernacular and his keenness for colour - evidenced by this exhibition which crosses decades as the artist crossed continents.