We are pleased to present Keep on Trucking, an exhibition of new paintings by Oxford-born artist Daniel MacCarthy at Benjamin Parsons x Hannah Payne Gallery.

A recent drive from his studio in Wales to a residency in Tuscany gave MacCarthy the opportunity to observe the truck stops, lorry parks, customs checks and shipping containers that make up the backbone of the global supply chain. This, along with views of the French, Swiss and Italian countryside, became the starting point that informs this new body of work. 

In Keep on Trucking, MacCarthy explores the assumption that there is a gulf between civilisation and nature, a metaphysical dualism that can bring disastrous consequences. His paintings explore the bizarre concept of our separation and transcendence of nature and, instead, offer a reflection on our innate primordial wildness. In placing disparate contemporary objects, characters and phenomena within the neglected setting of the roadside or other forgotten and tangled wild spaces the artist invites us to consider our own entanglement with nature and perhaps to reconsider our acceptance of a society that demands endless growth, challenging that we must, in the words of R. Crumb’s bumper-sticker aphorism, ‘keep on truckin.’

Daniel MacCarthy (b. 1986 Oxford, UK) studied History at the University of Sussex 2005-8 and at the Royal Drawing School in 2011. He completed the Turps Studio Programme in 2019 and currently lives in Wales. Recent shows include, Full House, Canopy Collections, Cromwell Place, London, Ship of Fools (solo) - Benjamin Parsons + Hannah Payne Gallery – curated by Kristian Day, Oxford, The Peace of Wild Things, (solo) Sidney Nolan Trust, Wales, and Things are in the Saddle, (solo) Galera, Milan. 

Curated by Kristian Day

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Exhibition 9 March – 19 April

Benjamin Parsons x Hannah Payne

16 North Parade Ave

Oxford OX2 6LX