Fresh from his 2026 SWELL & Avalon Arts Precinct Artist Residency in Berlin, Drew McDonald presents Now Is Not Now, a new exhibition of paintings at M|Arts Precinct, Murwillumbah.
“Now Is Not Now brings together a new body of paintings developed from my 2026 Berlin Artist Residency. The works draw on Renaissance era proverbs, particularly Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1559 painting Netherlandish Proverbs, and Goya’s early 19th century Black Paintings, using absurd and symbolic imagery to look at human folly, contradiction and the strange theatre of contemporary life. Animals, figures and familiar cultural icons appear in dark, theatrical scenes where humour and unease sit close together, and where the absurdity of human behaviour becomes part of the work’s tension.
The exhibition considers how old warnings, moral failures and absurd patterns of behaviour keep repeating themselves in new forms. These paintings are not just illustrations of the past, but reflections on the present, a world where power, ego, desire, delusion and performance continue to circle back on themselves with a kind of tragic comedy. In this sense, Now Is Not Now sits somewhere between proverb, satire and comedy, a dark room of allegories for an era that feels both timeless and completely current.”
When | Saturday 8th – Saturday 15th August.
M|Arts Precinct open Tuesday – Saturday.
SWELL Gallery Hours | 10AM – 4PM (Tue, Wed, Thur) | 10AM – 7PM (Fri) | 10AM – 4PM (Sat)
Out of these hours by appointment only T: 0457 006 889
Where | SWELL Gallery at M|Arts Precinct, 105 Wollumbin St, Murwillumbah NSW 2484
Cost | FREE
Exhibition Opening | Friday 7th August, 4PM – 8PM
Cost | FREE – all welcome, registration recomended
About the Artist
Drew McDonald discovered his passion for sculpture through formal studies in Visual Art at the University of Tasmania and Griffith QCA Brisbane, alongside training in several well-regarded ateliers where he developed both traditional and contemporary sculpture techniques. After publicly unveiling his practice in 2024, this now multiple award-winning emerging artist has quickly stepped into the spotlight. Informed by Dada, Surrealism, and Pop Art, McDonald creates absurd yet thought-provoking amalgamations of familiar forms, sculptures that merge the iconic into the irrational in ways that both amuse and unsettle.
Instagram @drew_mcdonald_studio
Website drewmcdonaldstudio.com
IMAGES: Courtesy of Artist