Landscape paintings have a formidable legacy within the art historical canon. Largely they seek to uphold notions of the picturesque depicting natural scenery and beauty of mountains, valleys, rivers and forests. Jacob and Xavier Ryan-McInally’s work challenges picturesque ideations to reflect upon our entanglement with the natural landscape in the epoch of the Anthropocene. Working across two mediums painting and documentary photography these artists engage with unwanted, unseen and forgotten elements of our urban environments. Responding to physical spaces around us, both artists disrupt the aesthetic response to emphasise the intangibility and the transitory. That is, they place the subjective at the centre of the work allowing engagement and interrogation that transcends notions of the sublime and beautiful.
Words by Rosie Hazell
Exhibition Opening – one night only
Where: 22 Crown Street, South Brisbane QLD 4101
Artists: Jacob & Xavier Ryan-McInally
