Binns is a conceptual painter whose work has explored depictions of colonial Australia, national identity, the environment, art history, consumerism and popular culture. A recent body of work, Toy Paintings, explored multi narrative myth-based landscapes in which he considered the paintings to be toys themselves. Another recent series, his paintings on two dollar shop Paintwell Artist Canvases, explored ideas of amateur vs. professional, home-based craft and hobbyist practices and media-saturated pop imagery. Binns’ most recent body of work, Ali Baba Squinting and the Watership Wind Band, formed a new series of multi-narrative self-portraits set within a Moroccan ‘oasis’.
Binns was born in Lismore, NSW in 1980. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) from the Victorian College of the Arts. Solo exhibitions include Rarities, Scarities, Ruins and Ripe Fruit, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2014; Studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 2013; Ali Baba Squinting and the Watership Wind Band, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2012; Toy Paintings, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, 2011; Toy Paintings, Chalk Horse, Sydney, 2010; Missing Bushwalkers on Found Landscapes, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, 2008; Work From Garage, Chalk Horse, Sydney, 2008; The Wilderness, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, 2007; Fergus Binns, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, 2005; Paintings, TCB art inc, Melbourne, 2004; and Galerie Vege, TCB art inc, Melbourne, 2003. Group exhibitions include On the Y-Axis: Considering Vertical Perspective, curated by Venita Poblocki, First Draft, Sydney, 2012; Thank you for the days: My teenage years, curated by Djon Mundine, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore, 2011; Impossible Objects I, organised by Melissa Loughnan and Helen Hughes, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2011; Home, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore, 2008; MAN: Depicting Contemporary Masculinity, Penrith Regional Gallery, Penrith, 2008; Primavera 2006, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006; Big In Japan, Gallery Side 2, Tokyo, Japan, 2006; Single Currency, VCA Gallery, Melbourne, 2006; Real Not Real, 5 Kent St, Henley Beach, Adelaide, 2004; Unsigned Artists (In association with PAV Modern), Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 2003; and Fallout, VCA Gallery, Melbourne, 2002. Binns was winner of the Metro 5 Award in 2008 and the TCB VCA Graduate Award in 2003. Binns is a current Gertrude Contemporary studio artist, 2012-13.
