Joshua Searle
Lost in Colour
View the catalogue for Joshua’s current exhibition “Lost in Colour” here
Drawing on and continuing from previous investigations into Colombian artefacts this exhibition explores a more imagined reality, a world that is lost in colour. Searle’s newest body of work creates stories melding his Australian childhood with a constructed perception of Latin America. Collaging imagery from texts, Lost in Colour explores the space in between the artist’s dual identities.
Joshua Searle Australian/Colombian
b.1998
Joshua Searle’s work involves an examination into socio-cultural issues, diasporic identity and existence. Primarily a painter, and now also working across sculpture, contemporary jewellery, glass and printmaking, he explores the diasporic position in contemporary societies founded upon migration and displacement in the Americas and Australia. He simultaneously questions confronting issues whilst celebrating Black excellence.
Art has enabled Searle to explore his Colombian heritage and identity which has brought an understanding of the strength that his culture can provide. Searle’s work uses figurative repetition to explore meaning, which shift with the context of each work. Major projects include Wall of Gold 2023, Stolen Gold 2023-2024 and Museo del Oro Robado (Museum of Stolen Gold), 2024. Exhibited in both public and commercial gallery spaces, these projects examine and unpack Pre-Columbian artefacts held in museum collections encountered through texts, as a means to further understand his own diasporic history and identity as an Australian-Colombian.
From an initial examination of collective cultural identity and societal impact to a more individual personal exploration, Searle’s work explores practices of institutional collecting and impacts of colonisation. He continues to undertake a process of reclamation of his own identity as part of the colonial diaspora, and of the works he references. These projects function as a critique of institutionalised practices of theft. For the artist ‘stolen gold’ refers to both the literal and metaphoric gold taken by colonisation.
Searle has undertaken several commissions with the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery 2022-23, including for the Archibald Prize Exhibition 2023. In 2023 he was a finalist in the Sir John Sulman Prize, AGNSW and in 2024 a finalist in the National Works on Paper Prize, MPRG. He has held a number of large-scale solo exhibitions in Melbourne, the most recent being ‘Relentless Optimism’, 2024, North Gallery. Searle is the current recipient of the 2024 Mason Family Trust Fellowship, undertaking a research trip to Colombia to examine Indigenous goldsmithing and sculptural practice housed in museum collections.
Angry Man Acrylic, enamel and oil stick on stretched blind 179.5 x236cm $10,000
The Corn Farmer Acrylic, oil stick, oil pastel on board 120x 275cm $7,500
A stylish figure appeared to stop me as I climbed the temple acrylic and oil stick on canvas 182.5 x 182 cm $6,000
His vision was shrouded by the beauty of the gold ornament acrylic and oil stick on canvas 152 x 182.5 cm $4,600
I swam in lake Guatavita and came out covered in emeralds acrylic and oil stick on canvas 181.5 x 182.5 cm $6,000
On the road to El Dorado I saw two llamas acrylic and oil stick on canvas 182 x 183 cm $6,000
Head in the trees hearing the golden bells ring acrylic, oil stick, pigmented ink and enamel on canvas 199.5 x 137 cm $4,500
The god of the dead come to collect his offerings acrylic and pigmented ink on canvas 199.5 x 137 cm $4,500
The gods came in many forms to silence the powers at be acrylic and pigmented ink on canvas 199.5 x 137 cm $4,500
Wicked Fizz would always make my tongue tingle Painted wood on steel base 188 x 30 x 15 cm $4,500
The Bubble-O-Bill bubblegum always lost its flavour too quick Painted wood on steel base 191 x 30 x 15 cm $4,500
liked the colours of my balaclava painting so much I used them again Painted wood on steel base 191 x 30 x 15 cm $4,500
When I was young I picked a Hot Wheels car out of the fire and it burned my hand Painted wood on steel base 191 x 30 x 15 cm $4,500