Imants Tillers, Fierce Paradise, 2021. Synthetic polymer paint, gouache on 54 canvasboards, nos. 111, 111–111, 164, 228.6 x 213.3cm. Courtesy: the artist and Bett Gallery, Hobart.

Enmeshed in turbulent times, Imants Tillers‘ exhibition Fierce Paradise: Paintings from Blairgowrie, beckons us back to a gentler pace, but not without a whisper of a reckoning.

Invoking numerous sources of influence, Tillers continues to enshroud us with the layered wonders of nature. Paying homage to the simplicity of a blossoming tree or a perfect moment of rippling surface tension on water, these immersive works cause for pause and reflection but also act as a gentle provocation, ‘A throw of the dice will never abolish chance’.

Text is an ever-present constituent part of Tillers’s oeuvres – sentences taken from works by philosophers, writers, poets, and thinkers, which like conceptual narratives are carried over from one painting to another. The focus of the artist’s ‘big questions’ is the individual, place and identity, exile, migration and affiliation.

Tillers is referred to as a ‘thought-provoking’ artist and his style is considered to be the quintessence of Postmodernism. The art of Tillers is intellectual, incorporating references to world cultures, the history of Western art, 20th century European literature and philosophy, indigenous Australian culture. Tillers has always chosen for his works, topics that would stimulate meaningful discussions.

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