Presented at Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Collaborative Works arises from a year-long collaboration between Stephen Bush and Jon Campbell.
Bush and Campbell met at RMIT School of Art in 1980 and a shared passion for painting and music has sustained their friendship ever since. In 2019, the pair initiated an artist swap between their respective galleries and, seizing this opportunity to work collaboratively, began swapping paintings from various points throughout their careers for the other to work on. The collaboration also includes Campbell’s exhibition at Sutton Gallery, Gone to see a man about a dog.
A new essay by Lisa Sullivan accompanies these collaborative exhibitions. In Gone Dead, Sullivan charts the formation of Campbell and Bush’s friendship alongside the concurrent Melbourne independent music scene. This text reveals how each artists shared connection to music cemented their friendship, moulded their careers, and eventually led to their creative collaboration
Jon Campbell has been a constant fixture on the Australian art scene since he first began exhibiting paintings of suburban youth culture in the 1980s. Since then his practice has evolved to become one of the more complex examples of Australian Pop art. He lives and works in Coburg, Melbourne and is represented by Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.
Stephen Bush graduated from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Fine Arts in 1978 and has since gone on to have a prolific professional career, recognized in Australia and beyond. Circular logic and self-imposed working methodologies inform his aesthetic approach to painting. The simple act of beholding remains fundamental to his artistic practice. He lives and works in rural Victoria, Australia, and is represented by Sutton Gallery.
Stephen Bush’s profile