Mark Whalen

2014 Melbourne Art Fair

Peculiarities unveils the inner machinations of Australian born, Los Angeles based artist Mark Whalen’s mind. Using a tightly controlled painting technique, Whalen expresses satirical social narratives in seemingly universal situations. Strange hooded characters caught in the throes of ambiguous actions, shimmering trees, geometric patterns, architectural anomalies and intricate textural beads of color collide in kaleidoscopic intensity, at once immaculately composed and careening out of control. His use of sly oppositions reflects life's puzzling duality; evoking dark humor through luminous color, chaos through controlled detail and the sublime through the specific - a seductive synesthesia that sheds new light on humanity: which, like his works, is both erotic and oppressive, vibrant and reclusive, beautiful and uncanny.

Littlewhitehead are children of the 80s, brought up on a diet of video nasties, computer games and the post-industrial landscape of socialist Glasgow. Their sculptures, drawings and video works are the product of an idiosyncratic and private dialogue. As a result, all of their work is steeped in their very own brand of humour, through which they manage to negate any particular ideological position, and instead try to foster reflection on many ontological and ideological absurdities. Recent shows include Nothing Comes to Mind at Concordia, Enschede, the Netherlands; The Weak Sex, Kunstmuseum, Bern; a solo exhibition at Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland UK; and Newspeak: British Art Now at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Their work is held in notable public and private collections across the world.

13 - 17 August 2014

Melbourne Art Fair
Royal Exhibition Building
Carlton, Melbourne, Australia

> Download exhibition catalogue (Littlewhitehead)
> Download exhibition catalogue (Mark Whalen)

Images by Blackartprojects and Tom Teutenberg