Marc Standing, Pulsating Magic, 2013, oil on polyester canvas, 100 x 100cm

Born in Zimbabwe, based in Sydney and now more recently in Hong Kong, Standing’s iconic and haunting paintings have developed along a complex path of progression. Driven by an innate compulsion to paint, Standing explores tension felt by a personal search for identity, embodied by complexities felt by a mass consciousness – one which has been left with toxic traces of colonialism.

This is what packs such a punch in Standing’s work – worldly layering of textures and imagery which evoke a surreal clarity in the viewer. Standing’s recent eerie yet peaceful paintings use a palette and compositional platform, mixed with sinister imagery to explore the tensions felt between light and dark; comfort and discomfort; a sense of belonging and a sense of void.

As he states ‘…in my current painting practice I have been using a lot of layering of imagery with the intention of barraging the viewer with a plethora of pictorial stimulus. Images derived from nature bleed and blend amongst more sinister imagery portraying a narrative that embraces the notion of both dreamscape and nightmare. Storytelling and imagination fuse into a visual mirage of wonderment.’