James Reka

James Reka’s latest show, Floriana, opens at Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne this week. The Australian artist returns to his hometown for the first time in six years for this body of work, completed partly at his studio in Malta, and in residence at the gallery. As part of the original Everfresh Crew, Reka initially made his mark in the laneways and train lines of Melbourne’s inner-suburbs where he spent over a decade developing his surrealist style. Working across bold colour palettes that are defined by their themes in each body of work, Reka’s nods to classical cubism are enhanced with technical layers and details that disclose the history of his urban canvases as much as they tell the stories of his characters. Reka’s work is both fastidious and expressive in its outcome, a duality his content contains too, sitting somewhere between the familiar and warm, and distantly observational in depth. The paradox extends further in tensions between graphic design and graffiti, and pop-simplicity and abstract geometry. Twisting together a mix of hedonism, still life in his neo-classic fine art, Reka’s studies are an examination of the human psyche, our habits, habitat, gaze, and lifestyles. ‘A junction of humanity and natural forces,...