Joshua Mack:
A Difficult Geography.
May 7–June 7, 2026

A Difficult Geography draws together thirty works by Ballarat-based artist Joshua Mack, made over the last decade. Working across mixed media abstraction, works on paper, wood, found materials and foraged clay, Mack is a self-directed artist drawn to grounded materials and the conversation between exterior and interior landscapes: the elemental in nature, the textures of urban decay and the obscure, generous language of abstraction.

Mack's sensibility is shaped by an enduring affection for the outsiders and eccentrics of art history, artists who trusted the obscure over the obvious. Running through this body of work is a thread of the tensions between land and identity, held but not resolved.

Biography

Josh Mack was born in Adelaide and raised in Melbourne. He has been a practicing artist for 15 years, contributing to numerous group and solo exhibitions alongside visual and creative projects in Geelong, Melbourne, and on the Bellarine Peninsula and Great Ocean Road. He was a finalist in the Queenscliff Art Prize (2013) and the Corangamarrah Art Prize (2012). Mack relocated to Ballarat in 2016 and has continued to work, taking a break from exhibiting since 2018. His influences range from the textures and patinas of urban decay to the elemental in nature. He is drawn to the language of abstraction and the deeply personal work of outsider artists and eccentric figures in art history.