Collection: Robert Duxbury - Misanthropic Paradise

Misanthropic Paradise is an exhibition of new watercolour paintings by Robert Duxbury.

Opening reception: Saturday, August 21st, 6pm - 9pm

This exhibition will run from August 8th to August 29th and will coincide with David Ambarzumjan's Brushstrokes in Time, Mr Everybody's A Nice Place to Sleep & Greg Olijnyk's The Contrivance.

Interview with Robert Duxbury.

Misanthropic Paradise explores the elusiveness of the deep and complex emotions that reside within our subconscious. Like the memory of a dream, vague and without form yet stirring with meaning, calling out to us in a voice we can hear but not understand.

Duxbury puts form to these enigmatic emotions in his figurative works with the use of ambiguous symbolism and brooding colour palettes reflecting the subtleties in feelings and emotions or lack thereof. Duxbury draws on his own experiences of emotional suppression and numbing that lead him down a path of suffering and self destruction eventually hitting a rock bottom that would be a catalyst for drastic change resulting in important insights and a deeper connection to self and emotions.

We hurt only because we love so deeply.

Robert Duxbury is a predominantly self-taught artists based in Melbourne, Australia. Exploring the human condition through his paintings Duxbury relies heavily on mood and symbolism, drawing inspiration from the classical romanticism and symbolism movements. Duxbury spent several years living in the Guangdong province of China where he studied traditional Chinese Gongbi and ink wash painting styles. After almost 15 years of exclusively painting street art his experience in china was the turning point that led him to a more traditional studio based practice.