Tom Kearney
Chevron Island
13 September – 5 October 2025
OPENING/MEET THE ARTIST Saturday 13 September, 11am – 5pm ALL WELCOME
MEET THE ARTIST Saturday 27 September, 11am – 2pm and ARTIST TALK at 1pm
This body of work is really about myth making, this time in the form of paintings. These works pull together elements from a variety of origins. The result is a patchwork of themes and motifs, sometimes seemingly disparate, but curated to weave personally cohesive ideas. The meanings are fluid, in that; there are multiple strands with multiple points of intersection, they shift depending on the perspective of the observer. The impression, like the mood of the paintings, flutters, shifts and reverberates, possibly psychedelic at times, but hopefully creating experiences that feel relatable, albeit if fleeting and elusive in nature. In essence; this work is an exploration of identity and ‘place’ through realms of the domestic, the exotic, and the mythological.
The title of the show “Chevron Island” is intended to be more about ‘could be’ rather than ‘should be’ or ‘is’. It could be a reference to a place, a distant, mythical or exotic place, a ‘far away in time’ place. It could be a place built on memories of faded Polaroid photographs, snap shots of sun bleached scenes featuring family in buoyantly patterned leisure wear, supported by mission brown balustrades and hot cement. It could be a reference to the halcyon days of surfing culture, its origins, and notions of grafted heritage perpetuated through folklore and the the motifs that describe it. It could be a reference to a symbolic directional device, pulsing forward with tentative optimism to a seemingly inevitable though uncertain future place. It could be a reference to an environmental disaster and the tensions around impacts and fragility that emanate. It could be a place of Babylonian prophecy where messengers from expired civilisations carry tales of excess and collapse. It could be a place where suburban ideations manifest, where contrived mutations bubble on the surface, forming a kind of scab that covers a painful history of dispossession and violence. It could be a place where myths of domestic bliss are played out, where fulfilment, community and security collide with banality and repetition, all wrapped in decorative surface coverings, colourbond and cottage gardens….Or it could be a myriad of other associations one might conjure.
Q & A
I am forever gathering visual resource material; for my whole adult life I have keenly sought out and stockpiled books, records, magazines, objects etc that intersect and inform my sense of self and stimulate my imagination. Think: mid-century interior design, vintage surfing magazines, mythology and artefacts of ancient civilisations, vintage travel brochures, visionary environments, etc. I vastly prefer using physical/printed media and self-captured photographs over online resources, in part for their tangibility and aesthetic value, but also as they seem to better reflect a more idiosyncratic journey of discovery. I then hone in on the subject matter as pertinent to the investigation, often layering and combining diverse cultural and mythological elements and motifs.
Artist Biography
Tom Kearney is a Newcastle based multidisciplinary artist working primarily with painting, sculpture and installation. His work revolves around notions of identity and connection, often explored through: (re)renderings of mythology and cultural motifs, and perspectives around relationships to ‘place’. Landscape is viewed as both tangible reality and as metaphorical vehicle. In particular the beach, the suburbs, and the bush are explored as frontiers of social and cultural resistance and metamorphosis. Historically loaded and continually rearranged, these spaces operate as palimpsest, in that strata is being repeatedly layered upon (concealing) and exposed (revealing). Pattern is a recurring theme in Kearney’s work; pattern as symbolic of repetition, both in social forms and as a visual/compositional device. Spatial tensions created by the interplay of three dimensional and two dimensional planes excites the mind and eye, while motifs and symbols help to map of a sense of self.
Kearney exhibited consistently between 2002 and 2012 before redirecting his focus, initially to post graduate research, and then parenthood. During that time he held 7 solo shows, several 2 person and collaborative shows, residencies, as well as many group shows.
