Dan Withey: Finite Bounty – Naracoorte

Finite Bounty is an exhibition of paintings by Adelaide-based artist Dan Withey exploring the theme of animism (the belief that objects, sacred places, animals, and natural phenomena possess a distinct spiritual essence).

Anthropomorphic creatures, strange characters, animals, rainbows, magical happenings, and landscapes come-to-life to inhabit Withey’s fantastical world, which is rendered in his signature illustrative, playful and imaginative style. In this body of work Withey dismantles hierarchical boundaries between human, animal, plant, landscape and inanimate object.

His worlds are imbued with a magic that asks us to consider what unknown secrets a mountain or a flower or a spider’s web might know that we don’t. Visual metaphor, puns, and absurd scenes point to the strangeness of contemporary life, as a way for Withey to poke fun at his own existential angst through a humorous irreverent attitude.

Finite Bounty represents a stylistic departure for Withey, with a looser more expressive approach exploding onto the canvas to fill the composition with expressive mark making and patterning which Withey uses to build complex compositions that jostle with life and vibrancy.