After graduating from a Masters of Art at Monash University, Rod moved to Alice Springs. His drawings and paintings are full of arresting imagery that offers viewers a closer look into Aboriginal daily life in the desert. Often perplexing but always engaging, Rod’s graphic works can appear both mundane and sardonic. Suggestive poses by the Aboriginal subjects simultaneously challenge both our knowledge and ignorance of Indigenous life, with Rod often wryly quoting famous masterworks from European painting history including those of Manet, Bellini and Caravaggio. Since 1984, Rod has won or been acquired for various awards in the Alice Springs region, including The Alice Prize, The Tennant Creek Prize and the Northern Territory Art Award. His works are held in numerous private, corporate and public collections nationally.
Through his painting and drawing Rod interprets the cultural interface between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Central Australia where he resides. Using graphite and synthetic polymer paint he carefully constructs narratives that challenge conventional images and endow his subjects with a common humanity. The blinding light of the desert environment renders a new way of seeing and elicits a gentle interrogation of the nature of what is accepted as realism.
Excerpt from LOOK CLOSER catalogue essay for The Hard Light of Day: Rod Moss 2006, Rex Butler 2005
Image: Rod Moss, Centuries of Sobs & Lamentations, 2021, graphite on Waterford paper 123 x 206cm.
