Landscape is never really about the actual land, it’s about what the viewer wants or expects to find in that particular place. It’s about the lure and mystery of a blurred horizon and the onlooker’s speculation over what some undefined shape in the distance may actually be.*
Mark Rodda, 2012
Rodda’s landscape paintings can be seen as a welcoming zone for the viewer’s personal recollections and reveries, where the landscape is a kind of scaffold upon which to hang ambiguous signposts.
Although previous periods in Mark Rodda’s career have been stylistically diverse, in the past half-decade he has focused on painting imaginary landscapes. These romantic worlds feature the occasional eccentric building, but are otherwise uninhabited.
Mark Rodda was born in Tasmania and lives and works in Melbourne. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) atthe University of Tasmania, Launceston, in 1994 and Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) at RMIT, Melbourne in 1999. Recent solo exhibitions include Shoeglaze, Gallery9, Sydney, 2014; Mark Rodda and Jake Walker, Utopian Slumps at Auckland Art Fair, New Zealand, 2011; Sleeping Giants, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2011; Phantom Lords, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne, 2010; Tidal River, Kings ARI, Melbourne, 2009; True Game Systems (in collaboration with Utopian Slumps and Büro North), Next Wave Festival, Federation Square, Melbourne, 2008; The Inland Sea (with Jake Walker), Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2007; Under A Tungsten Star, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, 2007; Four Short Films, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, 2007; Monsters and Their Treasure, Bus Gallery, Melbourne, 2005; Fortress, Westspace, Melbourne, 2005; Evil Twin, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne, 2004; and New Instruction in Lawlessness, TCB Art Inc., Melbourne, 2004. Selected group exhibitions include Autumn Landscapes, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2014; The Painting Group, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, 2011; The Painting Group, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2010; Notfair, Melbourne, 2010;The Ultimate Time Lapse Megamix, Next Wave Festival, Federation Square, Melbourne, 2010;Everything We Build We Tear Apart, Poimena Gallery, Launceston, 2010; Territorial Pissings, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2010; The Shilo Project, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Warrnambool Art Gallery, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney and Mildura Arts Centre, 2010; Visage, First Draft, Sydney, 2009; Where in the Woods?, VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, 2008; SafARI, China Heights, Sydney and Project Contemporary Art Spaces, Wollongong, 2006; Mini Works, Dep_Art_Ment, Auckland, New Zealand, 2006; and Fin, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, 1999. Rodda’s work is held in the Artbank, Joyce Nissan and Arthur Roe Collections, as well as various collections in Australia and overseas.
