This major new exhibition by acclaimed Melbourne painter Juan Ford, includes over 60 new works making up a compendium of beasts from Jorge Luis Borges' bestiary; 'The Book of Imaginary Beings'.
Ford's practice has consistently been engaged with opening up new possibilities for realism in painting. He has employed many strategies that argue around the theoretical 'problems' of realism in painting. Ford enjoys exploiting the limited shortcomings of the dull, officially sanctioned dialogue between painting and it's would-be executioner, photography, in order to develop new potential for realism. While his work evolves and varies across time, it characteristically involves an examination of the human figure and its relationship to its environment.
Juan Ford received a Master of Art from RMIT University in 2001. His many commissions include the Australian War Memorial, 2018, the National Gallery of Victoria's Melbourne Now 2013/2014, Manifesta 9 European Biennale 2012, Premier John Brumby for Parliament of Victoria Parliament House, Sir Isaac Isaacs, first Governor General of Australia for the Melbourne Jewish Museum, Monash University, The University of Sydney and Trinity College Melbourne.
Ford has exhibited extensively within Australia and internationally, including most recently solo exhibitions in Hong Kong 2019 and the 2015 Nakanojo Biennale Gunma Prefecture.
Major group exhibitions include at The Daejeon Museum of Art Korea 2015, Bendigo Art Gallery's Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize 2015, Art Stage Singapore, the National Portrait Gallery Canberra 2014 and the inaugural opening of Queensland Art Gallery/GOMA. Ford has been a finalist in the Archibald Prize in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. He was also a finalist in the 2012 Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery New South Wales.
Press release courtesy THIS IS NO FANTASY.
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