Melbourne, 2019:

July 2019 / Melbourne

STATION Australia, July 6 - August 3

The exhibition, JULY 2019 / MELBOURNE, continues Michael Staniak’s investigation into the impact of social and digital media on painting and image making. Specifically, this new body of work responds to the research he undertook while on residency at Fogo Island Arts, Newfoundland, Canada, in 2018, where the geographical extremes have a significant impact on shaping human behaviour in the natural environment.

In this exhibition, Staniak presents two aesthetically varied, yet conceptually related, series of paintings – the Oxide Paintings and the Nature Paintings. Both draw elements from the natural world (materials and imagery) to highlight the importance of the relationship we have to our physical and virtual environments.

Staniak applies his imagery and manipulates his mediums so as to disrupt the visual cues that help distinguish digital and traditional image production. The paintings in this exhibition use a combination of textural and printed elements, creating a trompe-l’oeil effect that deliberately deceives the viewer’s depth perception.