Cavea refers to the tiered seating of Greek and Roman theatres and amphitheatres, a space organised to contain and stratify its audience. Latin for “hollow” or “enclosure,” this work transforms that sense of enclosure into hard-edged forms that press inward from every direction, corralling the white ground into irregular pockets of negative space that read almost as seating tiers, stage openings, or the shadowed cut-outs of a ruin. What remains is the structural logic of gathered parts around absence.
Through abstraction, this work investigates forms that feel inherited without being identifiable. The monochrome flatness and hard edges invoke mid-century modernism, but the forms themselves carry the sediment of other histories. By stripping specific references through copying and simplification, dismantling and rebuilding becomes an open proposition to recreate in whatever ways we can.
Cavea, 2021, oil on linen, 183 x 152cm.
@thisisnofantasy
In geometry and architectural drawing, a compound shape is formed by joining simpler parts to create something no single shape can describe.
In this work black forms read as elevations, plans, or sections taken apart and reassembled without structural logic, hovering between the legible and abstract. A horizontal bar suggests a lintel, a curved recess a threshold, an oval void a window. However, none of these readings are enough.
This painting is a memory of a place - felt proportions of the body in space, intuition rather than fact.
Compound 2, 2019, oil on canvas, 122 x 107cm.
@thisisnofantasy
PUNCTUATE // 6 Feb – 7 Mar 2026
Showing with an amazing group of artists whose works explore a space between visual and conceptual mark making to consider those moments that make you stop, look closer, and see differently.
For a catalogue contact @thisisnofantasy
PUNCTUATE // 6 Feb – 7 Mar 2026
Showing with an amazing group of artists whose works explore a space between visual and conceptual mark making to consider those moments that make you stop, look closer, and see differently.
For a catalogue contact @thisisnofantasy
Photograph: Simon Strong
PUNCTUATE // 6 Feb – 7 Mar 2026
Showing with an amazing group of artists whose works explore a space between visual and conceptual mark making to consider those moments that make you stop, look closer, and see differently.
For a catalogue contact @thisisnofantasy
Photograph: Simon Strong
I’m pleased to share that this work is a finalist in Darebin Art Prize 2026 👏🏼 A great line up of artists!!
Image: Shell Ginger, 2023, oil on linen, 168 x 122cm
@darebin_arts@bundoorrahomestead with @thisisnofantasy #bhac #darebinartprize2026
STUDIO // Finishing up the year in the studio thinking about the many different ways of understanding our place in the world. I’m thankful to everyone I have connected with this year. I appreciate the meaningful ways we have worked together and our shared navigation through a state of constant flux. I look forward to more building, creating, repairing, and adapting in 2026! 🎉
Thank you to everyone who came to see MANUAL HANDLING at Jan Manton Gallery.
@janmantongallery for a catalogue of available works from this exhibition.
Images courtesy: Nicholas Ciner
Thank you to everyone who came to see MANUAL HANDLING at Jan Manton Gallery.
I have now updated my website with artworks and images from the exhibition.
Images courtesy: Nicholas Ciner
Thank you to everyone who came to see MANUAL HANDLING at Jan Manton Gallery.
These works explore interruption and the unapologetically decorative that comes from human touch challenging the clean precision of hard-edge abstract painting.
Images courtesy: Nicholas Ciner
