Jacob Pedrana

If ever an artist was a signifier of the times, surely it would be Jake Pedrana. And his colourful, flamboyant works with throw away lines taken from things as diverse as movies to Marlboro cigarettes hint at something deeper and more complex. The neo-punk cowboys in macho poses while wearing chaps/chapstik? - the rouged cheeks and the lip glossed mouths sit perfectly well in our gender fluid times. Jakes work isn’t akin to a religious experience, but what it does is challenge what we know and like about art. It’s pretty in a dirty way. With a high five to the ghost of Basquiat and a nod to Lister’s earlier work, Jake has rewritten the visual vernacular of neo-expressionism in Australian art. It’s exciting, it’s new and it’s being made in Bungan. It’s akin to the caged music scene in The Blues Brothers – Jake at the helm like his namesake (Belushi) while glasses fly and mayhem falls around him. Born in Noosa, residing in Bungan and living the great Australian dream, Jake is a renaissance man doing his best to maintain that maverick spirit (once coined larrikin) which is sorely missed in contemporary Australia. His trajectory only has one direction, and I’m just glad to say I knew him when… Written by Mitchell English (Director, Arcadia Street Gallery)