The paintings of Travis MacDonald form a symbiosis of memories and surrealism. Often cloaked in the atmosphere of the evening and imbued with a pleasant cloudiness, the artist responds to his surroundings with dreamlike resolutions, calling invented subjects into being. Many of his works feature landscapes, figurations and objects embedded in the urban context, drawing on souvenirs or people familiar to him, backdrops and social activities of his native New Zealand and Australia. The way he imagines and responds to an event or interaction formulates MacDonald's unique perspective: rather than faithfully depicting a specific moment in time, he focuses on creating a contemplative mood in which he immerses us, by using a variety of painting techniques and his ability to combine emotion, music, and social impulses in his art.

Lending its title from a song and album by the Canadian rock band Rush, the solo exhibition fly by night features an array of new paintings that delve into MacDonald’s world of thought, continuing to fuse traditional genres like landscape and figurative painting with pop cultural imagery, giving his oeuvre a particular complexity. The impact of his art historical allusions - influenced by artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, Clarice Beckett, Katsushika Hokusai and the Nabis group - makes clear how he ceaselessly rethinks the expected.

By using iridescent mists of colour, the artist evokes an emotional impact on his metaphorical representations. In addition, MacDonald liberates colour from its traditionally descriptive function and uses a palette of his own, resulting in an original beauty, an unusual and surreal visual world.

His interest in the influences of his surroundings and love of music find special expression in the work conversation on a bridge, which depicts a young group of people, resembling the young Stone Roses band, that moves through the city at dusk. Possibly an homage to the multitude of rock band formations of the 1970s, MacDonald also observes changes in the music scene of his current hometown of Melbourne. Social media has greatly affected the way music is created and consumed, as evidenced by the rise of solo artists and the decline of new band formations. As a result, the artist's works are increasingly concerned with social themes and activities. Outro visualizes the footbag (hacky sack) game as a communal interaction with the goal of not letting the ball touch the ground. Pictorial elements such as the crochet pattern of the ball, the shoe design, the looseness of closing, the length of the subject's hair, are reminiscent of hippie culture and embody a certain communal lightheartedness. There are no clear winners or losers here – a message of harmony and shared togetherness.

The work Spotlight portrays MacDonald’s brother wearing an old friend's jacket and standing in front of a painted cityscape backdrop like one would see on a late night comedy show. The striking shadow cast by the nighttime artificial light of this scene draws the viewer's eye and creates a calm, yet tense atmosphere. The golden-yellow light acts as a symbol of the isolation or loneliness of a big city, lending a timeless impression that accompanies the entire exhibition and invites us into a world of reflection and fantasy – into Travis MacDonald's dream world fly by night, which not only looks forward in times of progress, but also looks back. 

Travis MacDonald, born 1990 in Bunnythorpe, New Zealand, lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. He holds a degree in Fine Art from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, 2011. Recent exhibitions by MacDonald include a solo presentation at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair with Niagara Galleries, 2023, Trance at Envy, Wellington, 2022, Rain Sounds at Niagara Galleries Melbourne, 2021, and was included in a major survey of contemporary Australian art Painting, more painting at ACCA in 2018. JVDW gallery is proud to present fly by night as the first German solo exhibition by Travis MacDonald.

Text: Katie Eva Gaj / Portrait: Tillmann Franzen

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The paintings of Travis MacDonald form a symbiosis of memories and surrealism. Often cloaked in the atmosphere of the evening and imbued with a pleasant cloudiness, the artist responds to his surroundings with dreamlike resolutions, calling invented subjects into being. Many of his works feature landscapes, figurations and objects embedded in the urban context, drawing on souvenirs or people familiar to him, backdrops and social activities of his native New Zealand and Australia. The way he imagines and responds to an event or interaction formulates MacDonald's unique perspective: rather than faithfully depicting a specific moment in time, he focuses on creating a contemplative mood in which he immerses us, by using a variety of painting techniques and his ability to combine emotion, music, and social impulses in his art.

Lending its title from a song and album by the Canadian rock band Rush, the solo exhibition fly by night features an array of new paintings that delve into MacDonald’s world of thought, continuing to fuse traditional genres like landscape and figurative painting with pop cultural imagery, giving his oeuvre a particular complexity. The impact of his art historical allusions - influenced by artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, Clarice Beckett, Katsushika Hokusai and the Nabis group - makes clear how he ceaselessly rethinks the expected.

By using iridescent mists of colour, the artist evokes an emotional impact on his metaphorical representations. In addition, MacDonald liberates colour from its traditionally descriptive function and uses a palette of his own, resulting in an original beauty, an unusual and surreal visual world.

His interest in the influences of his surroundings and love of music find special expression in the work conversation on a bridge, which depicts a young group of people, resembling the young Stone Roses band, that moves through the city at dusk. Possibly an homage to the multitude of rock band formations of the 1970s, MacDonald also observes changes in the music scene of his current hometown of Melbourne. Social media has greatly affected the way music is created and consumed, as evidenced by the rise of solo artists and the decline of new band formations. As a result, the artist's works are increasingly concerned with social themes and activities. Outro visualizes the footbag (hacky sack) game as a communal interaction with the goal of not letting the ball touch the ground. Pictorial elements such as the crochet pattern of the ball, the shoe design, the looseness of closing, the length of the subject's hair, are reminiscent of hippie culture and embody a certain communal lightheartedness. There are no clear winners or losers here – a message of harmony and shared togetherness.

The work Spotlight portrays MacDonald’s brother wearing an old friend's jacket and standing in front of a painted cityscape backdrop like one would see on a late night comedy show. The striking shadow cast by the nighttime artificial light of this scene draws the viewer's eye and creates a calm, yet tense atmosphere. The golden-yellow light acts as a symbol of the isolation or loneliness of a big city, lending a timeless impression that accompanies the entire exhibition and invites us into a world of reflection and fantasy – into Travis MacDonald's dream world fly by night, which not only looks forward in times of progress, but also looks back. 

Travis MacDonald, born 1990 in Bunnythorpe, New Zealand, lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. He holds a degree in Fine Art from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, 2011. Recent exhibitions by MacDonald include a solo presentation at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair with Niagara Galleries, 2023, Trance at Envy, Wellington, 2022, Rain Sounds at Niagara Galleries Melbourne, 2021, and was included in a major survey of contemporary Australian art Painting, more painting at ACCA in 2018. JVDW gallery is proud to present fly by night as the first German solo exhibition by Travis MacDonald.

Request Worklist

Back to exhibitions