KEVIN CHIN
LIST OF WORKS
Out Back, 2024, oil on Italian linen, 138 x 199 cm
Hideaway, 2024, oil on Italian linen, 179 x 138 cm
Double Lake, Double Take, 2024, oil on Italian linen, 138 x 199 cm
Channeling, 2024, oil on Italian linen, 179 x 138 cm
Follow Forever, 2024, oil on Italian linen, diptych: 179 x 286 cm
Desert Sea, 2024, oil on Italian linen, 122 x 112 cm
Gateway, 2024, oil on Italian linen, 94 x 112 cm
So Inclined, 2024, oil on Italian linen, 138 x 199 cm
Sky Road, 2024, oil on Italian linen, 112 x 94 cm
Kevin Chin’s oil paintings intersect inverted landscapes to advocate borderless new territories. His third solo exhibition at Martin Browne Contemporary, Mystic Meander, questions if we can transcend worldly borders altogether.
Crossing continents, the new work evokes the sense of a parallel dimension. That magical feeling out in nature that a whole other world could be hiding between the crevices. The paintings act as portals, like in Gateway passing between twin trees, or Sky Road driving straight into the sky.
Carefully planted cultural references become slippery, taking us somewhere that is perpetually in between. Spring-time cherry blossoms in Follow Forever shift through Winter snowscapes and Summer waterfalls.
The artist is influenced by contemporary magic realist literature, a genre which poetically creates worlds that resemble our own but are slightly awry, and uses this as a lens to step outside ourselves and re-examine the way things are. In So Inclined, clothes hang across mountainsides. In others, reflections turn the earth upside down.
Kevin explains, “I want to open a meditative space to channel the metaphysical.” One of the paintings is even titled, Channeling. Here, land formations that channel water and steam also channel hidden forces. Kevin experiments widely with colour to express the wonder that connects us to deeper states of being.
This attention to colour gives the paintings their signature warmth. “The paintings are symptomatic of an unstable world, and my intention is to offer some comfort and respite.” Thus Kevin brings the homely with us when venturing into the wild. In Out Back, rows of pumpkins recede into red dirt roads. A sense of security informs Hideaway and Double Lake, where remote shacks are protected by towering trees shimmering with colour.
These transcendent paintings offer differing perspectives, giving us license to move more fluidly through the world. Here we find a safe space to meander, to unlock something mystic.
Kevin Chin is the winner of the Bayside Prize Melbourne, winner of the Albany Prize WA, runner-up at the Redland Award Brisbane, and a finalist in over 20 national prizes. Kevin has held 20 solo exhibitions around Australia, and internationally in the USA, Japan and Singapore. He has been awarded multiple grants from Australia Council, Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne, and NAVA. Institutional collections include Australian Parliament House, Artbank, RACV, City of Albany, Bayside City, Nillumbik Shire, and La Trobe Uni Museum of Art. In May-July 2024, Town Hall Gallery in Hawthorn, Melbourne presented The Long Way, a survey exhibition of Kevin Chin’s paintings from recent years.
Hideaway, 2024
Double Lake, Double Take, 2024
Desert Sea, 2024 Oil on Italian linen 122 x 112 cm Previous page: Follow Forever, 2024 Oil on Italian linen
Diptych: 179 x 286 cm
KEVIN CHIN
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Mystic Meander, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney
2024 The Long Way, Town Hall Gallery, Melbourne
2022 Un-Regional Gippsland Art Gallery, VIC
2022 Within Region THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne
2021 Never Closer, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney
2020 Social Distance, THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne
2019 Structural Equality, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney
2017 Refuge, THIS IS NO FANTASY + dianne tanzer gallery, Melbourne
2017 Along the Way Teton Artlab, Jackson USA
2016 Worlds Aside, THIS IS NO FANTASY + dianne tanzer gallery, Melbourne
2016 Worlds Away, Bayside Arts and Cultural Centre, Melbourne
2015 Stillness Between Us THIS IS NO FANTASY + dianne tanzer gallery, Melbourne
2014 One Ward, Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo
2014 Out of Ground, Art Stage Singapore (with dianne tanzer gallery + projects)
2013 Better Than Here, c3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne
2010 Playing House, West Space (West Wing), Melbourne
2009 Hearth, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
2009 RUINED, Kings Artist Run Initiative, Melbourne
2008 A hole in the roof TCB art inc, Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Sydney Contemporary (with Martin Browne Contemporary)
2023 Fisher’s Ghost Art Award Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney
2023 Paddington Art Prize, Cooee Art Leven Gallery, Sydney
2022 Local | Remix, curated by Angela Bailey, Montsalvat Barn Gallery, Melbourne
2022 Len Fox Prize, Castlemaine Art Museum, VIC
2022 Grace Cossington Smith Award, GCS Gallery, Sydney
2021 Shelter in Place, curated by Stephanie Sacco, Town Hall Gallery VIC
2021 Re-gathering, curated by Mardi Nowak, Benalla Art Gallery VIC
2021 Summer group exhibition, Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney
2020 John Leslie Art Prize, Gippsland Art Gallery, VIC
2019 Sydney Contemporary (with Martin Browne Contemporary)
2019 R & M McGivern Prize, Maroondah Federation Gallery, Melbourne
2019 Paddington Art Prize, Menzies Art Brands, Sydney
2019 King’s Art Prize, The King’s School, Sydney
2018 Sydney Contemporary (with Martin Browne Contemporary)
2018 John Leslie Art Prize, Gippsland Art Gallery, VIC
2018 Auckland Art Fair, New Zealand (with Martin Browne Contemporary)
2017 1717, curated by George Adams, Galerie Pompom, Sydney
2017 Closing the Distance, curated by Sophia Cai, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne
2017 How does your Garden Grow? curated by Angela D’Elia, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2017 9x5 NOW, curated by Elizabeth Gower, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
2016 Sanctuary, curated by Diane Soumilas, Glen Eira Gallery, Melbourne
2016 Imagined Worlds, curated by Kent Wilson, Town Hall Gallery, Melbourne
2016 John Leslie Art Prize, Gippsland Art Gallery, VIC
2016 Redland Art Award, Redland Gallery, Brisbane
2016 Len Fox Painting Award, Castlemaine Art Museum, VIC
2016 Incinerator Art for Social Change Award, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
AWARDS | GRANTS | RESIDENCIES
2024 Ey! Studio Residency, Madrid, Spain
2021 Creative Victoria, Creative Workers Grant
2021 Australia Council, New Work Grant
2020 Creative Victoria, Sustaining Creative Workers Grant
2020 Australia Council, New Work Grant
2020 City of Yarra, Creative Community Grant
2018 Winner, Albany Art Prize, WA
2018 Vancouver Arts Centre Residency, Albany WA
2017 Teton Artlab Residency, Jackson, USA
2017 Australia Council, Career Development Grant
2015 Winner, Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize, Melbourne
2015 Australia Council, ArtStart Grant
2014 Youkobo Art Space Residency, Tokyo, Japan
2014 Studio Kura Residency, Fukuoka, Japan
2014 Australia Council, New Work Grant
2014 Runner-up, Redland Art Award, Brisbane
2013 Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant
2013 City of Yarra, Small Projects Grant
2012 Winner, Lionel Gell Foundation Award
2012 Winner, Tolarno Hotel Award
2011 NAVA, Australian Artists’ Grant
2010 City of Melbourne, Arts Projects Grant
2010 NAVA, Australian Artists’ Grant
COLLECTIONS
Artbank
Bayside City Council VIC City of Albany WA
La Trobe University Museum of Art Nillumbik Shire Council VIC
Parliament House Art Collection
Royal Automobile Club of Victoria
We acknowledge and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional custodians of the Country upon which Martin Browne Contemporary stands.
© Martin Browne Contemporary
© All images copyright of the artist.
This catalogue is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission.
COMPILER: Bianca Luciano
COLOUR SEPARATIONS: Spitting Image, Sydney
Front Cover: So Inclined, 2024, oil on Italian linen, 138 x 199 cm
Above: Gateway, 2024, oil on Italian linen, 94 x 112 cm (detail)
