Juan Ford

Place: Melbourne

Born: 1973

Biography:

Juan Ford is an Australian contemporary artist known for his hyper-realistic paintings, as well as sculptures and installations. Experimenting with visual and spatial perception, the artist expands the boundary of painting by incorporating elements from various disciplines such as architecture, design, and photography. His works often ponder a reconciliation between the natural and the constructed through drawing references from elements in the Australian art canon and landscape. A consistent impetus in his work centers around observation and inquiry into humanity's relationship with its surrounding natural environment. By virtue of his acute dexterity, Ford relies on hyperrealist paintings to transpose the viewers into the scenarios/environments depicted, which are semblances of a post-apocalyptic and dystopic realm. Natural motifs pervade Ford’s works, profoundly reinforcing the mystic sentiment that he strives to evoke. Subversive in his artistic ethos and intellectual in his rigor, Ford’s paintings on show activate a hallucinatory function, thereby unleashing the uniquely persuasive visual cues to drive his viewers into a disoriented world.