3 – 19 November 2022
about the exhibition
Alexander Boynes is a Canberra-based multidisciplinary artist and curator whose practice encompasses painting, photography, print media, light-based work and video installation. Alexander continues to explore the social and environmental effects of climate change through this new exhibition, with particular reference to the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires. Alexander’s hand-drawn and solvent-washed tonal images on composite aluminium panels contrast dramatically with the challenging scenarios portrayed in his paintings. These scenes compel us to look again at this devastating event, a catastrophe that would have remained foremost in our minds if not quickly overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As Alexander explains, “Indigenous Australia has a well-recorded history of managing bushfires through firestick farming and cool burning … As caretakers of the land, it is our responsibility to once again harness such practices and restore nature’s balance. Though living in the Anthropocene and coping with the effects of climate change might seem like an impossible task, we must nurture hope. There is still time.”
Alexander Boynes graduated with honours in gold and silversmithing from the School of Art at the Australian National University in 2004. The following year his work featured in ‘Talente’ at the Munich Art Fair. He held his first solo exhibition in 2009 in Canberra and has since exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions around Australia. His collaborative projects include ‘Arnhembrand’, an art, science and stories project promoting healthy country and communities in Arnhem Land, undertaken with Mandy Martin. In 2016, he collaborated with choreographer/dancer Laura Boynes and cellist/composer Tristen Parr to present a full-length performance work, ‘Dark Matter’, at the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. ‘Luminous Relic’, a major painting, sound and moving image work that he created with Mandy Martin and Tristen Parr, was exhibited at Geelong Gallery and Orange Regional Gallery in 2017 and Canberra Museum and Gallery in 2019. Then, in 2021-22, their large scale collaborative painting, video and sound work, ‘Step Change’, was exhibited as part of the Fremantle Biennale and at the Belconnen Arts Centre. Alexander’s work is represented in many collections including those of Artbank, the University of Canberra, the ACT Legislative Assembly, the Macquarie Group and the Centre for Art + Environment in Nevada, USA.
