Structural Equality, Martin Browne Contemporary Sydney 2019

Kevin Chin’s new paintings were sparked by a US studio residency at Yellowstone National Park, shortly after Trump’s election. In America, Chin witnessed conservative nationalism and divisiveness, but also an equal reaction promoting diversity and challenging structural inequality. Developing this series in Australia over the past eighteen months, Chin examines how a sense of place forms fluidly in the consciousness, to surpass geographic borderlines.

Built structures meld into those from the natural environment in these clever compositions, to test how economic, cultural and social structures shape the world in which we live. Each painting is carefully assembled so that the logic of these structures is matched, such as the tiers of scaffolding and waterfalls, or the peaks of shelters and mountains. These paintings explore who has built what, who takes ownership, and who has the right to the land. Atmospheric in scale, they assume the perspective of the historically marginalised, to revise grand narratives in contemporary painting.

+

Tiers
Oil on Italian linen
138 x 199 cm

+

Peaks - finalist in the John Leslie Prize 2018, Gippsland Art Gallery Vic
Oil on Italian linen
138 x 199 cm

+

Another Rung - finalist in the John Leslie Prize 2020, Gippsland Art Gallery Vic, and the Paddington Prize 2019, Menzies Sydney
Oil on Italian linen
138 x 199 cm

+

All Flowing
Oil on Italian linen
138 x 199 cm

+

Castle Under the Sky - Nillumbik Shire Collection
Oil on Italian linen
138 x 199 cm

+

Mount Molehill
Oil on Italian linen
138 x 199 cm

+

Blue Above
Oil on Italian linen
138 x 199 cm

+

Non-Native
Oil on Italian linen
138 x 199 cm

+

Structural Equality, installation view