Max Bowden, To grow, 2024. Oil on linen, 60 x 46cm. Courtesy: the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne.

Max Bowden grew up watching the television show Monkey, the live-action fantasy adventure series based on one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature, Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en published in the sixteenth century. It’s protagonist, Sun Wukong, was referred to as the ‘Handsome Monkey King’ and ‘Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal’. The latter moniker resonated with Bowden as she painted her latest body of work, weaving together a poetic reflection on the paradoxes of existence.

Opening Event: Saturday 15 June, 2 – 4pm.

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