CURA.

The artistic universe of Travis MacDonald (b. 1990, Bunnythorpe; lives and works in Berlin) evokes an atmospheric haze. Cloudy and buoyant, his painterly language reworks surrealism within an urban context, shaped by the shifting environments and social conditions around him. Warm palettes are imbued with almost blurred undertones, adding a dream-like layer to familiar landscapes of his native New Zealand or Australia, where he is now based.

Furnished with his own storyboard and script, Travis MacDonald’s solo exhibition Had a Farm at Contemporary Fine Arts in Berlin is a deliberate machinery where each element, particularly on the narrative level, was thoroughly considered before brush met canvas. Here, a group of educated youth are confronted by provincial relocation following a housing crisis. Greeted by conservative residents with longstanding ties to the area, cultural and political tensions start almost immediately, saturated by warm, earthy hues. Beyond the title, cultivation is what keeps the exhibition together, whether through agricultural references or hair: throughout the paintings, long-haired figures drift across disused farms and small towns. They emerge from MacDonald’s delving into the photographic archives of the 1970s experimental communes and hippie movements.

The viewer follows the everyday life of MacDonald’s characters through states of adjustment and discomfort. Many of the figures are caught in suspense, either waiting or trying to cope with the wait, wavering between adaptation and withdrawal. Runaway (2026) lingers in particular: a green-toned oil painting that depicts a figure in motion, flourishing trees in the background. It’s not clear whether it’s an attempt at escape or an effort to find belonging in times of instability. Similar tension unfolds in Shhhhhhhhh………………. (2026), where a figure rests in the grass beside a crocodile, framed by stars and endless skies. Danger is there, but its source remains unresolved. 

In Had a Farm, we enter a sphere governed by its own logic and rulebook. Travis MacDonald’s distinct pictorial language stages a social landscape dripping with drift and tension. The paintings refuse escapism, asking instead what actually remains intact when faced with pressure.