News | April 2026 ‘Riff: Geoff Wilson Reframed’

I feel honoured to have been invited to exhibit a work in ‘Riff: Geoff Wilson Reframed’ to be shown at AIARTS Gallery in Adelaide during April 2026.

John Neylon, art critic for The Adelaide Review wrote in his critique of Geoff’s show at BMGArt in December 2020.

Another farm. Down south.

It’s gone now, in a sense. The painting captures its identity before gentrification airbrushed out its blemishes, eliminated ramshackleness, overgrowness and worn-in-ness. Closer focus.

A barn, or call it a shed. A house of corrugated cards really. A Queensland storm would have it spread from Aldgate to Tailem Bend in no time. But down south in dreamy old Fleurieu it lived out its days in pigeon poop slumber long enough for Wilson to stalk it and celebrate its askewness. . . .

These words which sum up so perfectly not only the oeuvre of Geoff Wilson but capture also the essence of the man triggered my exploration of the brief for ‘Riff’. I began looking more closely at the landscape of East Gippsland — close to my home in Metung, Victoria —ubiquitous to much of rural Australia. This is where i found the prompts that form much of the visual language of Geoff’s painting.

Work in Progress:

The distillation of the old farms and abandoned machinery into a painting of corrugated iron.

‘SALUTE’ …… to Geoff Wilson

I salute
The Grand Old Master
of South Australian Art
whose spirit will always be found
hovering over the old ruined farms
and abandoned machinery
ubiquitous to rural Australia
— the essence of which I have distilled
with this painting of corrugated iron
— a palimpsest of rust
and layers of worn and faded paint.

post script…..

I believe he has been seen
recklessly flying about
on an old paintbrush
in the same way a witch
flies about on a broomstick.

Jo Sabey