Painter Rob McLeod continues to push the traditional boundaries of painting with this new body of work that challenges his nostalgia for Scotland. While the works themselves break form, so do his own thoughts, manifested in a range of characters that move and melt across the gallery walls and floor. They wear captivatingly wily and distorted references to tartan, bagpipes, songs and music that are inherently connected to the history of painting through colour, shape and form.
Visitors to this exhibition will recognise other familiar images, materials and references to contemporary life within McLeod’s paintings: Batman, Mickey Mouse, the Marx Brothers, space rockets, hazmat suits, and Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello.
Rob McLeod was born in Glasgow in 1948, and studied at the Glasgow School of Art. Since emigrating to New Zealand in 1972, he has lived and worked in Wellington. McLeod has been exhibited and collected widely throughout New Zealand and Australia. His work has been seen at City Gallery Wellington, Te Papa, Auckland Art Gallery, Christchurch Art Gallery, Pātaka, The Sarjeant and The Dowse.