Back and Forth
10-20 April
Billy McQueen is process-led painter who retains something of a strong sense of narrative. While his work is pictorial in appearance, it’s concerned with the evocative potential of paint, embracing both the recent history of abstraction alongside broader traditions of narrative painting. His process-led approaches to the language and medium of painting allows each to create resonant and ambiguous images which shift between the real and imaginary—pushing at the medium’s potential for depth and meaning.
McQueen’s paintings largely draw inspiration from domestic scenes of family life and imagery associated with ancestral land in the Kaingaroa Plains. His subject matter carries a subdued autobiographical tone and takes a backseat to his main focus: exploring the richness of painterly substance, surface textures, and the illusionary spaces they can create.
Featured artwork: Fading Memory
