DAN MAGINNITY [BYRD] NOW HERE

2 APRIL - 18 MAY 2025

The Nancy Sever Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent work by Dan Maginnity [byrd], Canberra’s pre-eminent mural artist.

The themes of byrd’s work have grown out of his longstanding inquiry into Australia’s natural environment - his works make us think about its fragility, its management and the traces of human passage through it. They are often provocations that encourage viewers to consider the impact of human activity through the lens of the natural environment. They reflect his personal experiences and observations, but he bends and splinters them in ways that create refractions that magnify current vernaculars of politics, pop-culture, and histories of place.

The materiality of his visually striking murals, paintings and large sculptures pursue a ‘reclaim and re-use’ agenda. “Reclaim and re-use requires an awareness of what surrounds you, what your needs are: and how to use the resources available to you without permanently depleting them”, the artist says. “I am deeply uncomfortable with the speculative and museum production of ‘new work’ eating up fresh materials. Murals are one way of providing fresh work using existing grounds, and I try to do similar things with my studio practice.”

The works in this exhibition speak to our cultural memory, our political consciousness and our habits within our built environments through his painterly prisms and rainbows so that they continue to illumine the conundrums of our global present.

Byrd’s work may be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Craft ACT and various private collections both locally and abroad. He has produced commissions for the City of Sydney, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, the Gallery of Australian Design, Craft ACT, Westfield Hyperdome, Belconnen Art Centre, Canberra Glass Works, Megalo, CIT Reid, CIT Tuggeranong and numerous local businesses and schools.

For further information or to arrange a private viewing, please contact Nancy Sever at nancy.sever@iinet.com.au or mobile 0416 249 102.

(To view details of the works on a desktop, please hold cursor over the image. On mobile or tablet, please click on the image and then tap the dot in the bottom right corner on your device)

Byrd, Canaille, 2019 Installation, stencil on reclaimed real estate signage (vinyl) , magnets, edition of 4, each edition: 1.20 x 2.00 mt $4,500

Byrd, Luck razor 2022 Installation view, stencil on reclaimed timber, metal shelf. 40 cm x 2 m $3,000

Byrd, [Democracy sausage mince] – transactional systems II. 2019 mixed media, 390 x 900 x 30 mm $1,200

Byrd, [De-historisation] cognitive geography, 2019 Reclaimed commercial signage, office supplies, spray paint. 810 x 640 x 20 mm $2,000

Byrd, [De-Historisation] Value proposition, 2024 Reclaimed commercial signage, office supplies, spray paint, aluminium 810 x 640 x 20 mm $2,000

Byrd. [De-historisation] Algorithmic surfacing, 2024 Reclaimed commercial signage, office supplies, spray paint, aluminium 810 x 640 x 20 mm $2,000

Byrd, [De-historisation] –Symbolic communication. 2019 Reclaimedcommercial signage, office supplies, spray paint. 810 x 640 x 20 mm $2,000

Byrd, [De-historisation] -Fragmented attention. 2019 Reclaimed commercial signage, office supplies, spray paint. 640 x 810 x 20 mm $2,000

Byrd, [Democracy sausage mince] – carnival of echoes. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30 mm $1,200

Byrd, [Democracy sausage mince] - Internalised values of the market. 2024 Reclaimed exhibition furniture (board), office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint 900 x 390 x 30 mm $1,200

Byrd, Democracy sausage mince – Internalised values of the market. 2024 reclaimed exhibition furniture (board), office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint 900 x 390 x 30 mm $1,200

Byrd, Democracy sausage mince] – Lazy politics 2019 Reclaimed exhibition furniture (board), office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint 900 x 390 x 30 mm $1,200

Byrd, Democracy sausage mince – Internalised values of the market. 2024 reclaimed exhibition furniture (board), office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint 900 x 390 x 30 mm $1,200

Byrd, [Democracy sausage mince] Unobserved, uncaptured and unleveraged. 2024 Reclaimed exhibition furniture (board), office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint 900 x 390 x 30 mm $1,200

SOLD Byrd, [Democracy sausage mince] vulgar, derivative. 2019 Reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30 mm $1,200

Byrd, [Democracy sausage mince] –Feels like authentic self-expression 2024 Reclaimed exhibition furniture (board), office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint 900 x 390 x 30 mm $1,200

Byrd, [Letting Australia down again] – local exceptionalism. 2020 Reclaimed studio furniture, office supplies, spray paint. 720 x 300 x 30mm $900

SOLD Byrd, [Letting Australia down again] – don’t want responsibility 2020 Reclaimed studio furniture, office supplies, spray paint. 720 x 300 x 30mm $900

Byrd, Letting Australia down again] – emerging leaders. 2020 reclaimed studio furniture, office supplies, spray paint. 720 x 300 x 30mm $900

Artist statement

I am a freelance graffiti muralist and sculptor based in Canberra, Australia, having started out as a graffiti painter more than 25 years ago.

Many of my works address the non-human and explore the interface between urban life and the state of our natural environment, as well as how the language of politics shapes our public consciousness and how we use resources.

From the subjects (local birds) and themes I address (Australian settler politics) to the grounds I work on (street facades, buildings or reclaimed found materials) the message is embedded in my actions. I see irony in how, as humans, we can now admit to being part of the ecosystem, rather than apart from it or even above it, but still struggle to let other beings have their own agency. I think a lot about our impact and responsibilities in a multi-species community – our limits of the interpretation of others – and our constant need to anthro-translate. My works comment on the unknowable in relationships and, by extension, on the profound mystery of all living things.

I see the difficulty in, say, balancing between anthropomorphising the study subject and cataloguing a foreign or alien culture and, even more so, other species. We have historically sequestered large chunks of language for the description of humanity and it is hard to shake the old meanings loose enough to include others. Aside from this there is the difficulty of shedding one’s humanity in order to interpret the space occupied by another species. Creatures like parrots no more move through the world like us than do crows. Each group has unique physical and cultural modes which, measured from outside, can be impenetrable, unknowable.

I labour to produce ‘worthy’ pictures from local sources – to counter the still active cultural cringe (a hangover symptomatic of colonial consciousness) where the local creativity suffered debilitating inferiority complexes compared to the mythologised grandeur of the old Imperial centres. I look at what’s endemic around me – the endemic ‘other’ - the creatures and things that share the same space that I live in. So when working a streetscape as a pictographic space, I privilege local content instead of exotic imagery to talk to larger themes.

Part of my attraction to the field of street art is its relationship to the use of resources: figuring out what space is available and the best method to intervene, who will witness this intervention and what can be communicated. That these interventions are ephemeral is deeply satisfying for me as it defies neoliberal ideals of constant growth and democratises access to these spaces. An extension of this resource uses pivots on the axiom ‘think globally, act locally’.

My long, slow fieldwork observations as an amateur naturalist help me to be present in a place. But how the mess and noise of overlapping or unrelated research fields juxtapose really fascinates me - be it the shifting knowledge of science or what those shifts reveal about humanity.

All of this breaks my experience of the world and things in it into a kind of elastic taxonomy and lets me map unconnected systems. My studio paintings allow me to interconnect the words, language and texts that surround me with the imagery that I make. For example, settler political language becomes a method for grouping inferred hierarchies of native parrots to produce compositions.

My philosophical roots are in environmental and political activism and, while my work is not dogmatic, as I get older I see that everything is connected. The more I look, the finer the connections. And when, as artists working in Australia today, we speak of the environment we acknowledge that everything we do is ‘on country’ – we are never ‘off country’. Less connected perhaps, less attentive definitely. But never not ‘on’ and ‘in’ this land.

[Byrd] Dan Maginnity

March 2025

VIEW VIRTUAL EXHIBITION

[bYRD] DAN MAGINNITY | MEMORY PERSISTS

5 FEBRUARY -26 FEBRUARY 2023

(To view details of the works on a desktop, please hold cursor over the image. On mobile or tablet, please click on the image and then tap the dot in the bottom right corner on your device)

The Nancy Sever Gallery is pleased to present Byrd | Memory Persists, an exhibition of recent work by Dan Maginnity [byrd], Canberra’s pre-eminent mural artist.

The works in Memory Persists speak to our cultural memory, our political consciousness and our habits within our built environments through his painterly prisms and rainbows so that they continue to illumine the conundrums of our global present.

byrd’s work may be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Craft ACT and various private collections both locally and abroad. He has produced commissions for the City of Sydney, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, the Gallery of Australian Design, Craft ACT, Westfield Hyperdome, Belconnen Art Centre, Canberra Glass Works, Megalo, CIT Reid, CIT Tuggeranong and numerous local businesses and schools.

Byrd | Memory Persists opens at the Nancy Sever Gallery on Sunday 5 February 2023 and runs until 26 February. For further information please contact Nancy Sever at nancy.sever@iinet.com.au or mobile 0416 249 102. The Gallery is open Wed– Sun 11am–6pm.

[Gig workers] Blue banded. 2018 Enamel spray paint stencilled on an aluminium composite panel (retired shop signage). 10 layers using 14 colours. 45 x 60 cm. $1,400 SOLD

[Gig workers] Leaf cutter. 2018 Enamel spray paint stencilled on an aluminium composite panel (retired shop signage). 9 layers using 10 colours. 45 x 60 cm. $1,400 SOLD

[Gig workers] Peacock carpenter. 2018 Enamel spray paint stencilled on an aluminium composite panel (retired shop signage). 15 layers using 18 colours. 45 x 60 cm. $1,400

[Gig workers] Shaggy spined. 2018 Enamel spray paint stencilled on timber (salvaged packing crate). 45 x 60 cm. $1,400

[Gig workers] Teddybear. 2018 Enamel spray paint stencilled on an aluminium composite panel. 11 layers using 13 colours. 45 x 60 cm. $1,400

(s)t(he)y t(h(im)er)m. 2022 Enamel spray paint stencilled on an aluminium baker’s tray 74 x 43.2 cm $1,600 SOLD

Isolated exceptionalism magnification 2022 Enamel spray paint stencilled on reclaimed exhibition furniture 60 x 31 cm. $1,200

Isolated exceptionalism uncontested 2022 Enamel spray paint stencilled on reclaimed exhibition furniture 60 x 31 cm.$1,200

Isolated exceptionalism bad faith actors 2022 Enamel spray paint stencilled on reclaimed exhibition furniture 60 x 31 cm. $1,200

A mental detumescence. 2022 Enamel spray paint stencilled on timber (salvaged packing crate). 50 x 36.5 cm. $1,100

Being part of the geography. 2022 Enamel spray paint stencilled on timber (offcut from a door blank). 7 layers using 10 colours. 26 x 82 cm. $1,200

A moment to store against the future. 2019 Enamel spray paint stencilled on salvaged tempered glass. 11 layers using 8 colours. 45 x 30 cm. $980

Brings you inside the sound

An aesthetic pursuit with moral weight. 2020 Enamel spray paint stencilled on a salvaged TV screen. 125 x 72 cm.$2,800

Expectation management. 2022 Enamel spray paint stencilled on timber (salvaged packing crate). 50 x 36.5 cm. $1,100

False equivalence. 2021 House paint and enamel spray paint stencilled on timber (resurfaced canvas). 50 x 42 cm. $1,200 SOLD

Flip-flopping between intimacy and abjection. 2022 House paint and enamel spray stencilled on timber (resurfaced canvas). 45 x 61 cm. $1,200

Indigeneity spirit wash. 2022 House paint and enamel spray paint stencilled on timber (resurfaced canvas). 50 x 60 cm.$1,200

Heavy with a romantic exoticism. 2021 Enamel spray paint stencilled on a metal Transport Canberra bus box door. 30 x 30 cm. $960

High moral dudgeon. 2020 Enamel spray paint stencilled on timber composite board (repurposed IKEA furniture). 42 x 42 cm. $960

Locality aggregator. 2019 Enamel spray paint stencilled on timber composite board (repurposed IKEA furniture). 42 x 42 cm.$960 SOLD

Locality aggregator. 2020 Enamel spray paint stencilled on timber composite board (repurposed IKEA furniture). 42 x 42 cm. $960

Provincial imitators. 2022 House paint and enamel spray paint stencilled on timber (resurfaced canvas). 50 x 60 cm. $1,200

No queue to join (Pin-tailed manakin). 2020 House paint and enamel spray paint stencilled on timber. 30 x 30 cm. $900 SOLD

Rampant apathy. 2023 house paint and enamel spray paint on a reclaimed United Australia Party roadside election core flute. 160 x 420 cm. $8,000

No queue to join (Superb parrot). 2020 House paint and enamel spray paint stencilled on timber. 30 x 30 cm.$900 SOLD

Repetitive or patterned material distanced with irony. 2021 Enamel spray paint stencilled on timber 46 x 62 cm. $1,200

Simple, sombre and sober. 2022 Enamel spray paint stencilled on a metal cake tin. 24.5 x 24.5 cm. $860 SOLD

The perpetual instant. 2020 House paint and enamel spray paint stencilled on timber (resurfaced canvas). 44 x 38 cm. $1,200

Social rituals. 2018 Enamel spray paint stencilled on a metal switchboard door. 35 x 36 cm. $960 SOLD

The structureless atmospherics of psychoacoustics. 2021 House paint and enamel spray paint stencilled on timber (resurfaced canvas). 49 x 39 cm.$1,200

The ongoing phalloccupation. 2021 House paint and enamel spray paint stencilled on timber (resurfaced canvas). 53 x 35 cm. $1,200 SOLD

These things persist. 2021 Enamel spray paint stencilled on metal (salvaged road signage). 11 layers using 8 colours. 45 x 45 cm. $980 SOLD

A moral pursuit with aesthetic weight. 2020 Enamel spray paint stencilled on a salvaged TV screen. 72 x 125 cm. $2,800

One size fits most, 2020 house paint and enamel spray paint stencilled on timber (resurfaced canvas). 42x 48 cm $1000

The Canberra Times, Digital Review 11/2/2023 by Sasha Grishin

Views of the exhibition

byrd DAN MAGINNITY I NEW WORKS

14 OCTOBER - 7 NOVEMBER 2020

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To coincide with Contour 556 the City Walk Gallery is pleased to present Byrd | New Works, an exhibition by Canberra’s leading mural and graffiti artist.

operating outside of conventional art institutions since 2000, byrd creates works that range from doll-portraits of road-kill, to life-size sculptures of architecture and motor-vehicles, to wall drawing, commercial murals and graffiti, to studio paintings and community projects.

byrd’s paintings have grown from roots in the Graffiti scene. His themes emerge from a personal universe that explores environmental, gender and race politics, the paradoxes of the arts industry, and mediated pop culture. His lens has a deep appreciation of Australia’s creatures and natural environment and is interested in the aspirations and pitfalls of place-making, through the collection, reflection and re-presentation (or reimagining) of local things.

The paintings in this show use reclaimed gallery furniture (retired exhibition plinths) and industrial shelving as grounds for a multiplicity of (primarily) Australian birds, rendered in hand-cut, multi-layer aerosol stencil prints. The artist juxtaposes the uniqueness and natural beauty in these carefully observed, graphic portraits with collected fragments of textual phrases that he has extracted and isolated from their political and pop-culture sources. Both seem familiar, though slightly skewed, being quoted ironically and thereby somehow dislocated. Together, these puzzle pieces and their histories become new constellations, revealing new understandings of the world around us.

Since the late 1990s byrd has been leaving traces on the City of Canberra, but has active networks with the street art scenes across Australia. His work may be found in the collections of The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Craft ACT and various private collections both locally and abroad. He has produced commissions for the City of Sydney, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, the Gallery of Australian Design, Craft ACT, Westfield Hyperdome, the Belconnen Art Centre, the Canberra Glass Works, Megalo, CIT Reid, CIT Tuggeranong and numerous local businesses and schools.

Byrd | New Works opens at the City Walk Gallery, Level 1, 131 City Walk, Civic ACT 2601, (next door to King O‘Malley’s pub) on Wednesday 14 October and runs until 7 November 2020. For further information please contact Nancy Sever at nancy.sever@iinet.com.au or Mob. 0416 249102. The City Walk Gallery is open Wednesday – Saturday 11 am – 5 pm.

Artworks included in the exhibition:

(for details of the works, please click and hold cursor over the image)

Letting Australia down again – don’t want responsibility. 2020 reclaimed studio furniture, office supplies, spray paint.720 x 300 x 30mm $900

Letting Australia down again – competitive victimhood. 2020 reclaimed studio furniture, office supplies, spray paint. 720 x 300 x 30mm $900 SOLD

Letting Australia down again–emerging leaders. 2020 reclaimed studio furniture, office supplies, spray paint. 720 x 300 x 30mm $900

Letting Australia down again – no queue to join. 2020 reclaimed studio furniture, office supplies, spray paint. 720 x 300 x 30mm $900 SOLD

Letting Australia down again–local exceptionalism. 2020 reclaimed studio furniture, office supplies, spray paint. 720 x 300 x 30mm $900

Letting Australia down again–loss aversion. 2020 reclaimed studio furniture, office supplies, spray paint. 720 x 300 x 30mm $900

Letting Australia down again–virtue signalling. 2020 reclaimed studio furniture, office supplies, spray paint. 720 x 300 x 30mm $900 SOLD

De-historisation – cultural infrastructure. 2019 reclaimed commercial signage, office supplies, spray paint. 810 x 640 x 20 mm $2,000 SOLD

De-historisation – cognitive geography. 2019 reclaimed commercial signage, office supplies, spray paint. 810 x 640 x 20 mm $2,000

De-historisation–role playing. 2019 reclaimed commercial signage, office supplies, spray paint. 810 x 640 x 20 mm $2,000

De-historisation–audience facing. 2019 reclaimed commercial signage, office supplies, spray paint. 810 x 640 x 20mm $2,000 SOLD

De-historisation–symbolic communication. 2019 reclaimed commercial signage, office supplies, spray paint. 810 x 640 x 20 mm $2,000

De-historisation–self projecting. 2019 reclaimed commercial signage, office supplies, spray paint. 810 x 640 x 20mm $2,000

De-historisation - fragmented attention. 2019 reclaimed commercial signage, office supplies, spray paint. 640 x 810 x 20mm $2,000

Democracy sausage mince – terse drama. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30 mm $1,200

Democracy sausage mince – always be knolling. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200 SOLD

Democracy sausage mince – context collapse. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200 SOLD

Democracy sausage mince – transactional system I. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200 SOLD

Democracy sausage mince – lazy politics. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200

Democracy sausage mince–cultural drivers. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200

Democracy sausage mince–centrist miasma. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200

Democracy sausage mince–structureless atmospherics. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200 SOLD

Democracy sausage mince – collective shout. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200

Democracy sausage mince–Insular textuality. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200

Democracy sausage mince – heavy exoticism. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200 SOLD

Democracy sausage mince – lurking elitism. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200 SOLD

Democracy sausage mince – sponsored influential operation. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200

Democracy sausage mince - Carnival of echoes. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200

Democracy sausage mince–transactional systems II. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200

Democracy sausage mince–structure of feeling. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200

Democracy sausage mince – vulgar, derivative. 2019 reclaimed exhibition furniture, office supplies, mixed nation birdlife, spray paint. 900 x 390 x 30mm $1,200

Wallpaper for capitalism. Figbird. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Blue wren. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Magpie. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Noisy miners. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Budgies. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Galah. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Pied cormorants. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200

Wallpaper for capitalism. Spinifex Pidgeon. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Jacana. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200

Wallpaper for capitalism. Red rumps. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Black throated finch. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200

Wallpaper for capitalism. Crimson rosellas. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Pied herons. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm

Wallpaper for capitalism. Cockatoo. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Superb parrot. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Kookaburras. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. King parrots. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200

Wallpaper for capitalism. Zebra finches. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Gang gangs. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Silver eyes. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Red tailed black cockatoos. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Wattle birds. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200

Wallpaper for capitalism. Magpies. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Budgies. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200 SOLD

Wallpaper for capitalism. Budgie and Galah. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200

Wallpaper for capitalism. Kites. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200

Wallpaper for capitalism. Wattle birds. 2019 shop made frames traded for labour, office supplies, spray paint 200 x 200 x 12mm $200

BYRD | UNRELIABLE NARRATOR

9 August - 3 September 2017

The Nancy Sever Gallery was pleased to present Byrd | Unreliable Narrator, an exhibition of recent work by Canberra’s pre-eminent mural and graffiti artist.

The themes of byrd’s work have grown out of a longstanding relationship with Australia’s natural environment: its fragility, management and the traces of human passage through it. His early ephemeral installations involved weaving architectural spaces from sticks or placements of recycled office furniture in the bush. Through graffiti and mural painting he has now turned his gaze towards urban space.

His work pursues a ‘reclaim and re-use’ agenda, made evident in the ornamental resurfacing of walls and storied objects through the use of an accumulated library of marks, patterns and icons.

As the artist says of his work, “I re-story (or further-story) already storied grounds with marks and stencils that in themselves encompass the complex chronology of my life-long aesthetic endeavour. Each cypher of this chronological archive has been laboriously copied/extracted/re-coded/re-engineered into a whole new organism.”

‘I don’t hold with the exotic other; that’s lazy externalising’, the artist says. ‘Reclaim and re-use is practised in the ‘here and now’. It requires an awareness of what surrounds you, what your needs are, and what combination of those first two best serves each; of how to use the resources available to you to meet your needs without permanently depleting them. It doesn’t get much more ‘here and now’ than this explicitly human conundrum’.

For the artist, this exhibition is an opportunity to make these interventions portable, to produce works that can claim a space as they move into any place, to make islands, to build compositions from his library of marks that are compositionally sound and able to hold their own in multiple locations.

byrd’s work may be found in the collections of The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Craft ACT and various private collections both locally and abroad. He has produced commissions for the City of Sydney, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, the Gallery of Australian Design, Craft ACT, Westfield Hyperdome, the Belconnen Art Centre, the Canberra Glass Works, Megalo, CIT Reid, CIT Tuggeranong and numerous local businesses and schools.

Byrd | Unreliable Narrator opened at the Nancy Sever Gallery on Wednesday 9 August 2017 and run until 3 September 2017. For further information on available works or commissions, please contact Nancy Sever at nancy.sever@iinet.com.au or Tel 02 6239 5434. The Gallery is open Wednesday – Sunday 11 am – 6 pm.

Artworks included in the exhibition:

(for details of the works, please click and hold cursor over the image)

A chorus of small desires. 2017 House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed timber table. 2017 1m x 1m. $1,800

Into aching flood 2017 House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed sideboard, 2017. 580 x 400mm. $900 SOLD

A force of opposition. 2017 House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed form ply and timber 52 x 102 cm. $1,000 SOLD

Sharpening absence (still, life). 2017 House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed form ply. 72 x 135 cm $1,200

Apathies' harvest (still, life). 2017 House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed form ply. 86 x 128 cm $1,200 SOLD

Slow and raw and tender. 2017 enamel spray paint on reclaimed table top 60 x 60 cm $900

Adverbs of pandemic proportions. 2017 House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed ply board, wall installation 9 parts. Dimensions variable. $1,400 (set) 24 x 30 cm each $200 SOLD

Adverbs of pandemic proportions. 2017 House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed ply board, wall installation 9 parts. Dimensions variable. $1,400 (set) 24 x 30 cm each $200

Help me forget that love helps me forget. 2017. House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed timber table. 89 cm dia. $1,800

Words cannot save us (still, life). 2017 House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed form ply. 120 x 55 cm $1,000 SOLD

Smug and hypocritical in tone. 2017 House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed ply board .wall installation 8 parts. Dimensions variable $1400 (set) 28 x 36 cm each $200

Spirit animals. 2017 House paint and enamel spray on reclaimed ply board72 x 139 cm $1,200

Flight spills (still, life) 2017. House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed form ply. 73 x 79 cm $1,000 SOLD

Untethered thoughts swimming. 2017 enamel spray paint on reclaimed timber table top 106 x 170 cm $2,800

With all attendant duties. 2017 House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed ply board Wall installation 10(6) parts. Dimensions variable : $1,200 (set) 24 x 30 cm each: $200

Into coherence (still, life). 2017 house paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed form ply 90 x 140 cm $1,000 acquired for the Collection of the ACT Legislative Assembly

Lacks anchorage of meaning (still, life). 2017 enamel spray paint on reclaimed form ply 73 x 162 cm $1,000

Relentless and perpetual. 2017. House paint and enamel spray paint on reclaimed form ply. 52 x 102 cm/ $1,000 SOLD

Sometimes there is a night (still, life). 2017. House paint and enamel spray paint on timber. 130 x 60 cm. $1,000 SOLD

Views of the exhibition

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‘byrd’ DAN MAGINNITY

BORN in 1974, NSW. Daniel Maginnity Lives and works in Canberra. For the last 15 years he has been working on public art, painting murals and commissioned works. Some of his important commissions include works for The National Portrait Gallery, the Hindmarsh group, the Molonglo Group, Actew, Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation, The City of Sydney, Tumut Shire Council, The Department of Territory and Municipal Service. His work is represented in the collections of The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Museum and Gallery, The Molonglo group, Craft ACT and various private local and international collections. He has been guest speaker at the Australian National University School of Art, Canberra University and the Canberra Institute of Technology. byrd has run workshops in the ACT for CIT Reid, North Ainslie Primary School, Kaleen High, Lyneham High and Waniassa Creek High Schools,The Messengers Program, Adelong Council, Youth centres at Woden, Civic, Tuggeranong, Western Creek, Turner and Belconnen and in Cooma, NSW.

SELECTED COMMISSIONS

The Joy Wall. 2015

Slow hour /hot indecipherable pillow talk. 2015

Studio research 2013

Studio research 2014

Studio research 2015

I don’t like cricket. 2015

Dream Machine. 2016

Sky's gotta grumble. 2016

Cut-fry-bake. 2016

Like the feel of lemon jelly. 2016

DAN MAGINNITY BYRD BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

Born New South Wales, 1974

Selected Solo exhibitions

2023 Memory Persists, Nancy Sever Gallery, City Walk, ACT.

2021 Ire Elevant, November ThorsHammer Showroom Gallery, Fyshwick,ACT.

2020 New Works, City Walk | Gallery, Canberra City

2020 Drawing the Distance, (online project) for Belconnen Arts Centre, Belconnen ACT.

2019 context collapse, theKEEP, Civic, ACT.

2017 Unreliable Narrator, Nancy Sever Gallery, Kingston ACT.

2016 #InurtiaCreeps , Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman House Arts Centre, ACT.

DreamMachine, with taLKbLaK and other collaborators, Belconnen Arts Centre, Belconnen, ACT.

2014 Placeholders, Canberra Museum and Gallery Projects Space, ACT.

2013 ‘box ticking cat memeing parasite’, Jas Hugonnet gallery.

Selected group exhibitions

2023 I can’t belive it’s not Street Art, 11 Jan-11 Feb, BLACKBOX ARTSPACE, Wollongong, NSW.

2022 of land and belonging, exhibition curated by Dr Johanna Hoyne Whitlam ACT.

Canberra Art Triennial; Contour556 1-28 Oct, Canberra ACT.

New Annual; Little Festival 01-02 Oct, Newcastle, NSW.

CUTTING IT FINE 1st April, Revolver Upstairs 229 Chapel St, Prahran VIC.

2021 OtherWorlds with Hanna Hoyne, Nov26 2021-Feb 31 2022 Belconnen Arts Centre, Belconnen, ACT.

2020 Sloughing Studio for Contour556 2020, with Hanna Hoyne and Amanda Stuart, 8 Petrie Plaza Civic, ACT.

2020 Today I, Tomorrow You, curated by Chloe Mandryk, Nishi Gallery, NewActon, ACT.

2020 Contour 556, curated by Neil Hobbs, Canberra

2019 Threatened Species Exhibition, curated by Jas Hugonnet for The Cannery Bentspoke . Mitchell, ACT.

2019 Stencil Art Prize, finalists exhibition, curated by Jaccinta Fintan, touring nationally until 2021.

2018 Contour 556, curated by Neil Hobbs, Lake Burley Griffin foreshore, Canberra ACT.

Celebration:20 years of collecting visual art at CMAG . curated by Deb Clark, Canberra Museum and Gallery.

2017 Stencil Art Prize 2017, finalists exhibition, curated by Jaccinta Fintan ,Stirrup Gallery, Sydney.

Internationalist, curated by Kirsten Farrell, M16 ARTSPACE, Griffith ACT.

2016 UNTAMING THE URBAN a visual art response, curated by Amanda Stuart, ANU School of Art, Acton.

The 2016 M16 Drawing Prize, finalists exhibition, M16 ARTSPACE Griffith ACT.

2015 Urban Suburban, curated by Leanne Santoro, Canberra Museum and Gallery, ACT.

IMAGINARIUM, curated by Amanda Stuart, Belconnen Arts Centre, Belconnen, ACT.

SOMETIMES THERE ISN’T ANYTHING TO GET, curated by Rosie Goldfeder. Nancy Sever Gallery, Kingston ACT.

2014 Offline, curated by Jas Hugonnet, Nishi Gallery, NewActon, ACT.

Zine stars, curated by Narelle Philips, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Tuggeranong ACT.

2013 FLIPSIDE: the underbelly of Canberra, curated by Merryn Gates, ANCA Gallery, Dickson, ACT.

100% Books by Canberra Artists curated by AmpersandDuck(Caren Florance), Watson Arts Centre, Watson, ACT.

Selected commissions

2020 Mural production (80sq.m) ACT Health Directorate, October

2020 Collaborative mural production with Mary Kaiser (160sq.m), November

2020 Collaborative mural production with Kurt Laurenson (270sq.m), December

2020 she sighs, 5m x 3m garden wall, Private commission in Hacket, ACT.

recurrent beautility, 20m x 3m wall, funded by the City Renewal Authority, Dickson, ACT.

2019 oiseaux armour (Wazzoo Armor), 8m x 3m ground painting for YouAreHere2019, Civic, ACT.

BradleyStreet (16m x 3.6m) and jolie laide, (4.3m x 2.5 m), for the Scenetre Group at Westfield Woden, ACT.

2018 Ngude dudu gimi (I’ll have to think about it), 2m x 5m, for St Francis Xavier Nauiyu, Daly river NT.

A shared, waking state, intentional, communicative, collaborative dream (parts 1 & 2 of 6), 4m x 5m each for MMJ Real Estate Canberra,

Manuka ACT.

2017 FatBabyThai, 9m x 9m building façade for Joanna Nelson Architect.

2016 sky’s gotta grumble, 4m x 8m, collaborative wall with Atune, for TAMS and CBDinc, Braddon ACT.

Keepsakes (15m x 3m) and ‘like the feel of lemon jelly ’ 4m x 8m), for Dhalwa , Secure Mental Health Unit, Symonston, ACT.

2015 Attenuates the senses, from a sketch auctioned during GlassWorks residency, painted in Rivett.

I don’t like cricket interior exterior and ceiling of 4m x 7m x 3m building, for a private residence Manuka, ACT.

2014 UrbanWetLands, 12m x 3m pump house for TAMS, Mitchell.

2013 WE ARE HERE , 180 meters to a height of 5 floors, with Dylan Demarchi,

theDirt, and Sarah Howell curated by Juliet Rosser along Foley Street Darlinghurst, Sydney NSW.

Selected Public works

2023 long & Low, 15m x 2m wall with Atune, Jamison, ACT.

2022 Wedang, 6m x 2m wall, Yarralumla ACT.

DE IRD, 5m x 3m collaboration with Delm, Mitchell ACT.

BillyBoy, 20mx15m section of 60m wall with DrHoon and DrStuart for Contour556 2022, the Causeway ACT.

dawg walka, 20m x 3m wall with DoctorHoon, Narooma, NSW.

bERd{fluro} 5m x 3m wall Narooma NSW.

Yamaroshi, 20m x 3m collaborative wall with Delm, for SurfaceFest2022, Braddon ACT.

Winedawg, 10m x 3m wall with Delm, Kaleen ACT.

2021 blueBerd, 20m wall with Atune and Stock Watson, ACT.

thought leaders wall, 20m x 3m collaborative wall with Fluke Atune and Delm, Mitchell, ACT.

dregs and tangled, 15m x 3m collaborative walls with Delm, Kaleen ACT.

wax drummer, 8m x 3m collaborative wall with Atune for Cbr StreetDanceFest Civic, ACT.

Aranda Pavilion, community mural production with Mary Kaiser, Aranda ACT.Aranda Pavilion, community mural production with Mary Kaiser, Aranda ACT.-berd, 6m x 3m, Mitchell ACT.

2020 theKEEP project sees collaboration with bravebotanics.

ducking responsibilities, 2m x 8m wall with Atune , Mitchell.

GFB’s 20/21/22 launched across Canberra.

2019 theKEEP project sees collaborations with Andrew Carbine & WilliamTurner.

afternoon delight/morning glory, 4m x 15m collaborative wall with Atune and Delm, Mitchell.

alwayswasalwayswillbe, 2mx 15m collaborative wall with Atune and Chan, Dickson.

GFB’s 14-19 launched across Canberra.

displacement activities, 4m x 15m wall with Atune, Mitchell.

2018 TheKEEP project sees collaborations with Caren Florence & Paul Summerfield.

daughter’s wall 4m x 20m collaborative wall with Atune , Ainslie Football Club ACT.

Shek Kip Mei, 4m x 6m, Mitchell ACT.

GeorgeFranklinBoards Project, launched Canberra wide.

morning glory, 4m x 15m collaborative wall with Atune and Delm, Mitchell.

2017 theKEEP project sees collaborations with Johanna Hoyne, Yollande Norris & Andrew Carbine.

Wadeyed, 3m x 10m wall at The Front Café and Gallery, December.

Too much pink, 3m x 8m collaboration with Delm And Atune for SanchosDirtyLaundry bar.

okayladiesletsgetinformation wall with Stock, Atune and Delm, Belconnen.

2016 theKEEP project sees collaborations with Anne Cleary, Emma Beer & Kirsten Farrell.

skys gotta grumble 4m x 8m, collaborative wall with Atune, for TAMS and CBD Braddon ACT.

LaDiDaDi 4m x 8m collaborative wall with Delm, Mitchell ACT.

‘Vietnamese minute’ wall with Stock, Atune and Delm, Belconnen.

2015 theKEEP project launched with the support of JoannaNelsonArchitect, Civic ACT.

‘TropicalToxic’ wall at The Front Café and Gallery,March, Lyneham ACT.

‘wasps’ wall at The Front Café and Gallery,Febuary, Lyneham ACT.

2014 Cloudy wall with Atune, and Chan, April, Belconnen ACT.

“MakeDo” part2, Write it Up Gallery, March, Tugerannong Hyperdome, ACT.

“MakeDo” part1, Write it Up Gallery, January, Tugerannong Hyperdome, ACT.

2013 ‘Rules of Summer’ wall at The Front Café and Gallery, December, Lyneham ACT.

‘afters’ wall with Atune, Chan and Ownit, April, Belconnen ACT.

Residencies

2020 Aranda Pavilion, community mural production with Mary Kaiser, Aranda ACT.

Going The Distance, Belconnen Arts Centre Covid Arts support scheme.Kaleen, ACT.

Live studio, National Museum of Australia, Acton Peninsula, ACT.

2019 Artist in residence, with Atune at TedNoffs Watson, ACT.

Live studio, National Museum of Australia, Acton Peninsula, ACT.

2018 Artist in Schools for the Northern territory Government, at St Francis Xavior primary, Nauiya Community, DalyRiver NT.

YouAreHere Festival, Artist in Residence.

IncubatorSpace , open studio Belconnen Arts Centre

2017 Artist in Schools for the Northern territory Government, at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School, Wadeye NT.

Artist in Residence CaptainsFlat Primary, CaptainsFlat NSW.

Artist in residence as part of the 90th year celebrations Ainslie Primary, Ainslie ACT.

2016 Artist in Residence Bungendor Primary, Winter, Bungendor NSW.

2015 That’s not Glass, Artist in residence Canberra Glass Works, Kingston.

2014 Artist in Schools for Arts ACT. Gilmore Primary School. Gilmore ACT.

EXTRACTS OF REVIEWS AND WRITINGS

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2014/05/28/4013997.htm

Byrd

Working under the tag name Byrd, this Canberra artist is famed for utilising elements of urban street-influenced graffiti, producing murals and commissioned works of astounding originality.

Although his works have recently exhibited in galleries across the city, including the Nishi Gallery, Canberra Museum and Gallery and the National Gallery of Australia, and adorned the walls of commercial spaces like the NewActon South Building and Craft ACT’s shopfront, Byrd developed his passion like many other fellow artists – from street graffiti.

“It’s the idea of art being incidental to your life, not something to go and receive, which drew me to graffiti initially,” he says.

“It keeps you in the now, being open and observant, because tomorrow it could be gone.”

It’s not hard to stumble upon remnants of Byrd’s masterpieces outside cafe walls, the lanes of Civic spreading to Braddon and Dickson, bus interchanges, skate parks, car parks, and various private spaces and underpasses.

Byrd has been stamping his art around Canberra for more than a decade, and many of the murals commissioned by the ACT government or private business owners have been sprayed from his aerosol can.

“My commissioned works vary greatly from non-figurative, non-letter based patterns, one-metre high and 10-metres long to oversized insects on a wall four-metres high and 40-metres long,” he says.

“I draw and paint at all scales.”

But these pieces are not your typical graffiti. Grasshoppers nestled in a jungle scene on a wall in Civic, bald tattooed cats on a toilet block in Dickson and parrots and galahs on an old bus are now among the collected works of Byrd.

Having a mind full of buzzing imagination, you would think it would be a difficult task for an artist like Byrd to hone one single idea when beginning a new project, but the art veteran assures he takes a cool and methodical approach.

“I look at how the wall sits in the broader space, and prepare my composition to advantage this,” he explains.

“I go to my sketchbooks to find images that resonate in the space. This reflection time lets me adjust the images to the proposed techniques – be that stencilled, free painted, brush work, hard or soft filled, climbing or ladder work and so on.”

While many creatives flock to the bigger cities to succeed, Byrd has stuck around in the nation’s capital long enough to have seen its arts and culture scene evolve.

“More people feel able to get involved at all levels,” he says.

“The sticker scene here was small in 2000, and those were mostly handmade by artists. Now everyone is getting stickers printed, from start-ups and bands to graphic designers.

“With a few notable exceptions like Abyss and Houl, it’s the artists who are still keeping it handmade.”
Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/entertainment/paint-the-town-canberras-urban-art-community-comes-to-the-surface-20141010-3hp97.html#ixzz3ZWpFHJfa

http://www.outincanberra.com.au/articles/tocumwallanepartychattinggraffikpaint

http://nga.gov.au/exhibition/SPACEINVADERS/Default.cfm?IRN=198658&BioArtistIRN=36373&MnuID=4&GALID=36373&viewID=3&DTLVIEW=TRUE