Australian artist Casey Tosh paints outside the lines

Artist Casey Tosh poses with his portrait of Nick Cave. / Courtesy of Casey Tosh

By Jon Dunbar

"If you feel safe in the area that you're working in, you're not working in the right area," David Bowie once said in an interview. "Always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom you're just about in the right place to do something exciting."

That's not the only reason Australian artist Casey Tosh moved to Korea, but he did count it among his reasons in an interview with The Korea Times.

"I was doing my work in Australia and felt like I needed a change to progress, and I wanted to create artworks in a new country," he told The Korea Times.

So in 2019, he left behind his familiar home country, where he'd been doing solo art exhibitions and getting paid commissions for street art jobs and selling his pieces for between $1,000 and $6,000, and came to Korea, intent on producing paintings, murals and screen-printed clothing.

Tosh has been working as a painter for about 10 years, earning a bachelor of fine arts at Federation University in Ballarat, Victoria, majoring in painting and minoring in printmaking when he graduated in 2018.

His work is best described as neo-expressionist or transavantgarde and is characterized by intense expression and rough handling of materials.

He'll be displaying his latest exhibition, titled "Television Personalities," at Mudaeruk, located near Hongik University, from Aug. 13 to 27.

Explaining the theme of the exhibit, he said it's "about unique personalities, people who aren't afraid to be weird, strange or step outside of the normal."

The subjects for his works include eccentric basketball player Dennis Rodman, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, skateboarder Mark Gonzales and boxer Mike Tyson.

"Some are rascals, likable, cheeky or mischievous characters, who have excelled and achieved a high level in their area of expertise. People that have been painted are characters that in one way or another have influenced me in the way I think or approach my life and work."

His paintings are expressive and lively, and while they look a bit chaotic, the famous people in them are instantly recognizable, and the paintings express something genuine about the subject. In the paintings revealed so far, none of the people depicted posed for Tosh.

Tosh's acrylic painting of Bourdain shows him sitting on a plastic stool in Hanoi, eating from a bowl of noodles he clearly savors.

"It is about the vibrant streets of Vietnam and the beautiful colors and delicious smells of fresh Vietnamese food," Tosh said. "As a traveler and someone who has worked in kitchens and hotels, I really enjoyed Bourdain's writing of his travels around the world, and often in times of being isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic, his raw and vivid writing gave me some comfort."

Anthony Bourdain in Hanoi, painted by artist Casey Tosh / Courtesy of Casey Tosh

Tosh cites artists van Gogh, Keith Haring and Robert Rauschenberg as influences on his style.

"This painting and the other works I've made in the show are meant to be raw, vibrant and expressive," he said. "As a painter, often it is about not just the paint you put on a canvas but the paint you don't put on it ― knowing when to stop, and when an artwork is finished."

Casey Tosh's "Warhol vs Basquiat" made with acrylic paint pen and oil stick / Courtesy of Casey Tosh

Not all of his paintings feature instantly recognizable celebrities. His "A bull in a china shop" shows a black bull in a desert, surrounded by cacti and another bull's skeleton. It's painted on a reclaimed photo frame, and Tosh didn't stay between the lines, painting all across the frame.

This painting is about "not accepting the ruling law or limited views of a ruling party, government or any other authority that limits your basic human needs and independent thinking," he said.

Artist Casey Tosh's "A bull in a china shop" is painted on a reclaimed photo frame. / Courtesy of Casey Tosh

"Such as limits on freedom of the press, as have happened in places like Hong Kong. Sometimes Korea can be like this, in a way: 'Do what you're told, do what the boss tells you, don't ask questions, do as the government tells you,' and a lack of independent thinking," he said.

After a live painting performance for a graffiti party in Hongdae in 2020, Tosh said he was invited to a few professional galleries.

"In the end, I chose to do it at Mudaeruk because I was more in control of the work and the subjects," he said. "Mudaeruk is a large open and active space that has other events such as live music and markets, making it an active and vibrant alternative space. I like the area around Hapjeong and Mangwon Market ― great food and live music venues near the river."

His opening party on Aug. 13 will feature four DJs from the U.S., U.K. and Korea, most of whom are on Il Padrino Records. The event starts at 5 p.m. and runs until 8 p.m.

Also, Tosh's own clothing line, Rascal Clothing, will be available at the opening party, offering hand-cut stencils reminiscent of graffiti stencils, in a style influenced by his experience skateboarding over the years.

Visit caseytosh.redbubble.com for more information.