Jason Moad

Jason Moad is a contemporary realist painter, based in Melbourne. With a careful, labour intensive approach to painting photorealistic scenes, Moad invites us to examine displays of personal belongings, cultural artefacts and the natural environment, capturing the tensions of narrative possibility inherent in his compositions.

‘Miscellany’ encompasses recent works, and presents a combination of the artist’s botanical works alongside depictions of pop culture ephemera.

Because I work alone in a home-studio, my day to day routine didn’t actually
change much with the arrival of the pandemic. Even so, in what is no doubt a
common experience, I’ve found focus illusive in the last couple of years. I just
tried to get up and spend time at the easel every day. Even at the height of
the uncertainty, hanging on the daily press conference and with the case-load
climbing inexorably, here in Melbourne, the most locked-down city in the
world, I tried to be productive. Ultimately, I aimed to be philosophical about
the disruption and pursued a number of different directions (hence
Miscellany, the title of the show), reasoning that, as long as I kept painting,
something good would come of it.

My various projects have included an ongoing effort to design my own Tarot
deck, some experimental multi-panel works and, more importantly for this
show, a continued engagement with the botanical world. I treat these
succulents and other plants as subjects, rather than mere objects, hoping to
get to something essential about their presence and personalities. The final
motif that has captivated me is that of the house of cards, surely the most
versatile and poignant motif for the times we find ourselves living through.

– Jason Moad, 2021