Jackson Slattery Best Forgotten

11 June –
3 July 2021

Jackson Slattery

Trout Fabriano

, 2020
Oil on linen
41 x 30.5cm

In recent years, Jackson Slattery’s practice has concerned itself with the hierarchies of methodology in relation to authenticity in art making. Consequently, his artworks tread a line–conceptually and stylistically–between sincerity and indifference.

For this exhibition, Slattery has focused on remnants of the dematerialised art movements of the late 20th century including documentation, flyers and other ephemera. He identifies how these materials, which both preceded and outlasted the transitory acts themselves, have become codified references in art history. Like photorealism, which developed in parallel with conceptual art, Slattery posits that perhaps these promotional materials and subsequent documentation can operate as a bridge between the formal and conceptual, one that also hinges on a sincere/indifferent polarity.

In Best Forgotten, Slattery attempts to galvanize these two disparate art movements by allowing them to exist concurrently on the picture plane. In treating his subject matter with a sense of homogeneity–in this case photo realism–neither is required to compete conceptually or stylistically.

Selected solo exhibitions

Parc Offsite, Montreal (forthcoming), 2021; Darling Foundry, Montreal, 2021; Nicolas, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2019; Grey Speckled Question Marks, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2017; Points d’Interrogations Blancs, Soon Gallery, Montreal, 2016; Burning Your Furniture to have the Warmest House in the Street, with Kieren Seymour,Alaska Projects, Sydney, 2015; Works on paper, Sutton Projects, Melbourne, 2015; Every Picture, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2015; Tunisian Parquetry, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2014; Halfway to a Dead Heat, Siamese Dream, Montreal, 2014; Wrong Formalism, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2012; Props, Sutton Gallery, 2011; Man Made Paradise, TCB, Melbourne, 2010; Dennis Rodman & My Plastic Everything, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2009; Small Ambition, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 2009.

Selected group exhibitions

Des horizons d’attente, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 2021; En bonne campagnie, Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal, 2020; La Dronne, Gertrude Glasshouse, Melbourne, 2019; Bodies Go Wrong, Orgy Park, Brooklyn, 2017; Media Hype, C3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne, 2017; Mile X/Sorrento, TCB, Melbourne, 2016; Head, Incidents Above a Bar, The Alderman, Melbourne, 2015; Drunk vs Stones III, Neon Parc, Melbourne, 2013; Down to the Line, Bett Gallery, Hobart, 2013; Fall Open Studios, ISCP, New York, 2013; Temperament Spectrum: The first twenty-one years 1992 – 2012, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, 2012; Resident Artist Exhibition, Sammlung Lennikus, Vienna, 2012; Trust Me, with Tony Garifalakis, Galerie Desaga, Cologne, 2011; Cornucopia – recent acquisitions, Geelong Gallery, Geelong, 2010; Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; and touring to QUT Art Museum, Fremantle Arts Centre and Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 2010.