CLINTON NAIN Mao and I
15 September - 8 October 2011
Australian artist, Clinton Nain, creates vivid abstract canvasses employing domestic materials for his mediums, such as heritage coloured house paint, bitumen paint and household bleach. With a sophisticated wit and seemingly absurd humour, Nain contemplates the history of his homeland in his potent paintings and performance art.
In ‘Mao and I’, his first solo show in Hong Kong, Nain draws parallels between the Indigenous Australians—the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples— and the fundamental concepts of Communism. Nain considers how, for thousands of years, the vast lands of Australia had been utilised to best meet the needs of the people collectively and that the advent of colonisation has resulted in resources being perpetually exploited and marginalised by the capitalist class.
Since obtaining his Bachelor of Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts and his Master of Fine Art at the University of New South Wales, Clinton Nain has established a significant place in the critical debates of contemporary Australian art. His work is held in the collections of The National Gallery of Victoria, The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, Queensland Art Gallery, The Australian Museum in Sydney and in several University and corporate collections. He has exhibited and performed widely in Australia and Europe.
)
