From super cool hipsters to art world afficionados, street artists, mums and dads, commuters, dog walkers and lackadaisical youth, Castlemaine’s own Rob McHaffie has keen observations of everyday surroundings, which reveal the idiosyncrasies and absurdities of contemporary Australian urban life with colour, whimsy and humour.
McHaffie’s latest major exhibition surveys his recent work including new painting, collage, works on paper and ceramic sculpture in a vibrant showcase of the artist’s buoyant and broad-ranging creative vision.
McHaffie told the Express the exhibition was the biggest he’d ever had – spread across five galleries and featuring a mix of new and borrowed works.
“It’s rejuvenating to see,” he said.
“Each work marks a different time in my life and different memories come back.”
McHaffie applies collage techniques to portraiture and narrative paintings to reassemble and re-picture people, settings and moments, both real and imagined. Through pop culture references to musings on domesticity and human relationships, his work reveals an enjoyment of and amusement at life and the performativity of our public and private selves.
“My works are about social observations and interactions, as well as art and art history, but since moving to Castlemaine I’ve been painting more nature. There are pictures of the Res, kangaroos and a quirky piece of nine paintings about cafe life in Castlemaine – inspired by the cafes here and the types of people who visit them,” McHaffie said.
Born in 1978, Rob McHaffie spent his formative years in Melbourne before moving to Castlemaine in 2019 with his young family. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drawing) and a Master of Fine Art from the Victorian College of the Arts, and has been the recipient of numerous awards and residences, and has exhibited widely in Australia and New Zealand over the past twenty years.
His work is held in many public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne among others.
Rob McHaffie: We are family is on display at the Bendigo Art Gallery from August 10 to January 27, 2025.
-
The Cafe Set was inspired by Castlemaine’s thriving cafe scene the characters who inhabit them. -
Single mums at the Res – featuring the local watering hole at Golden Point.
