Surface Tension: The Art of Euan Macleod

The title of Euan Macleod’s first major touring exhibition, Surface Tension, could not be more apt. Upon first glance at this collection of work, the tension is most palpable through its execution – thick, painterly strokes, texture that literally hangs off the canvas and a style that is both frantic and contemplated. The tension is most obvious from a close distance, allowing the viewer to absorb the heavy-handedness of Macleod’s style, the merging drips of colour and balance of tone.

Take a few steps back, however, and the tension is immediately transformed. The frantic energy is diffused into the tranquillity of water and landscape with the main antagonist taking the form of a dark figure both interrupting the scene and yet seeming to belong to it. In some works, the figure is seamlessly merged into the landscape as if both body and land rose from each other, ageing together in a fusion of earth, flesh and stillness.

Macleod’s use of colour also ignites the melody of tension within the works, with just a few slick dabs of paint hinting at burning embers of fire or trails of camp smoke. These artistic cues prove that much like the mysterious figure in the images, what we make of Macleod’s works are the result of our own tensions between the obvious and the subtle – which will more than often delve far deeper than just the surface.

Surface Tension: The Art of Euan Macleod 1991-2009
University of Queensland Art Museum
October 29–December 11, 2011