BIO
Jordan Marani makes darkly humorous work involving personal narratives, cynical observations of the human condition and explorations of family, loss and the past. Through painting and sculpture employing bright colour, humour and word play, he explores the funny side of the dark side.
Jordan makes art of of the everyday, reflecting his immediate surroundings and community. His work is drawn from such crude and everyday references as suburban life, popular culture, booze, football, the art world and family history. Early works used materials from scavenged, recycled and reclaimed rubbish, such as paintings on boards salvaged from skips, bottletops, and food packaging, and from basic and impoverished materials, such as cardboard and house paint. Recent works continue to utilise humble materials, such as bed sheets and handkerchiefs, alongside more formal and polished works on board and canvas. Jordan blends lowbrow culture with high art, with an insistence on the value of the working class and crass.
Over the last 30 years Jordan's work has been littered with profanity drawn from the ugly vernacular of Australian politics and the pub. He started creating text and four-letter word paintings in the late 1980s, with a series of ‘Shit Paintings’, and has been exploring word play, profanity and the joys of four-letter words ever since. His multi-faceted practice includes figurative and narrative-driven paintings alongside ongoing series of text-paintings, installation and found-object sculptures.
Growing up, Jordan's parents were the proprietors of The Hi-Way Snack Bar in Clayton North. He attended Oakleigh High School and his first job was at the Notting Hill Hotel, before he attended Prahran Technical College.
From 2008-2011 Jordan was co-founder and director of Hell Gallery. His work has been exhibited at NADA New York, Tate Modern, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Spinnerei Leipzig, Ararat Regional Art Museum, Shepparton Art Museum, Static Gallery Liverpool, Switchback Gallery, 200 Gertrude Street, Daine Singer, Neon Parc, Utopian Slumps, Ryan Renshaw, Ray Hughes Gallery, Powell Street Gallery and at ARIs including Death Be Kind, Inflight, SEVENTH and West Space.
Recent projects include the publication of his first book, EGGS, which launched at the National Gallery of Victoria (2016), a solo exhibition at Ararat Regional Art Museum (2016), a public artwork for the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (2016), a residency at the Leipzig International Art Programme in Germany (2017) and group exhibitions in Leipzig and New York (2018). His work is held in the collections of the Yarra City Council, Moreland City Council, LIA Leipzig, and Ararat Regional Art Gallery.
Jordan Marani is represented by Daine Singer, Melbourne.