Irises Alien Invasion

In this reimagining of the iris garden, familiar botanical forms mutate into an unruly extraterrestrial ecosystem. Flowers become watchful creatures, insects and strange organisms, gathering beneath a deep blue sky threaded with a delicate honeycomb pattern.

Rich oranges, electric blues and earthy browns bring energy and warmth to a scene that moves between beauty and threat. The more closely you look, the more life reveals itself: eyes, mouths, limbs and cells hidden among the foliage. Irises: Alien Invasion celebrates the fertile territory where nature, imagination and joyful chaos collide.

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Leon Fernandes is a richly expressive painter with a deep interest in psychological and spiritual themes. From his longstanding series of hilly landscapes to his more recent embroideries, he is always challenging preconceptions about subject matter, colour, and media. A queer artist with an atypical mind, his work has extraordinary emotional range; he investigates the world with a combination of brutal honesty, intellectual curiosity, and pure joy. Leon draws strongly on his mixed European and South Asian heritage, repurposing Catholic and Hindu iconography and fearlessly hybridising the sacred and the profane. His depiction of Krishna smoking meth outside the Imperial Hotel (Krishna in Erskineville, 2017) provoked a heated public conversation about the role of art and artists in Australian culture. Leon’s approach to canvas is just as unrestrained, using oils, acrylic, spray paint, machine embroidery, and found fabrics to produce richly textured and layered works.

He lives in Newtown, Sydney, Australia.