Stringybark
from the Echo exhibition

“Ned Kelly was convicted of receiving a stolen horse in Kyneton.

The painting depicts the tree at which Sergeant Michael Kennedy was shot during the Kelly gang shootout at Stringybark Creek in 1878.
The tree becomes associated with an event surrounded by trauma, but also myth in Australian history.”

- Jarrad Martyn, 2025

The starting point for this new body of work was the artist’s father’s photo album, which he created during his time working in Antarctica in 1985. As Martyn explored the album, he became intrigued by how the meaning of these photographs and the archive itself evolves, evoking new political and environmental associations in the present day.

‘Echo’ marks the introduction of found imagery into this personal archive. Motifs drawn from different contexts and periods from historical archives, nature magazines and holiday snaps are combined together through digital collage. The resulting narratives take on an uncanny and unresolved quality, continuing to challenge the legacy of our relationship with the landscape.

Martyn’s approach to painting blurs the lines between figuration and abstraction, creating a ‘state of flux’ that fosters a more ambiguous sense of place. By resisting precise representation, he encourages the viewer to shift between different modes of thinking and perception, inviting them to make connections and form their interpretations of the unfolding events and the symbolic meanings embedded within. By leaving these narratives unresolved, Martyn creates space for deeper reflection, expanding the possibilities for interpretation and connection.

Jarrad Martyn (b. 1991) is an Australian artist based in Melbourne. His practice explores humanity’s relationship with the natural environment and how different historical events are framed. Through painting and drawing, Martyn employs the principle of bricolage, something constructed from a diverse range of things, to collate academic research and its associated imagery to create an alternate conversation. Heavily relying on shifts between expected context and associated periods, the contrasting motifs are used to explore the relationship between industry and the environment, species hierarchy, the conservation function of zoos, the evolution of collective memory, and the function of public monuments in modern society.

In Martyn’s work, the handling of paint is characterised by making adjustments to the opacity, texture, and clarity of the paint. The aim of which is to make the surface of the painting interesting and, at times, to hinder the representation of motifs. This, in turn, encourages the audience to look longer, to deduce links between, and decipher their own conclusions as to what events are unfolding, and the symbolic meanings within.

Martyn’s work is in many public and private collections, including the University of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University, Curtin University, City of Perth, City of Joondalup, Shire of Mundaring, and St John of God Hospital Art Collection. Martyn has been selected as a finalist in numerous national art awards, most significantly winning the John Stringer Art Prize (2018), the City of Joondalup Community Invitation Art Award Overall Acquisitive Award (2017) and the Fifty Squared Art Prize (2021) at the Brunswick Street Gallery.

Martyn’s practice also extends into the public sphere, being commissioned for a number of large-scale council and commercial murals. His work can be seen in the Shire of Collie (WA), Rochester (VIC), City of Fremantle (WA), City of Swan (WA), and the Newman Hotel in the Pilbara (WA), among others.

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