Rob McHaffie
Designer Shell
2 May - 30 May 2026
In collaboration with Darren Knight Gallery

On a beach in Koh Chang, Thailand, small hermit crabs move across the sand as tourists enjoy succulent meals, watching a glowing pink sunset. A small child watches a crab fumble, roll over a peach-coloured shell, and then shuffle into its new home, leaving its old shell to wash away with the rising tide.

An artist drags a heavy bag off a conveyor belt and pays for long-term parking. As he drives home, memories of the warmth, the smells, and the shells intoxicate his mind. Returning to work at Arts Project Australia, he shares printouts of tropical beaches, hoping the inspiration will pass on.

The holiday feeling begins to fade as winter’s gas bill delivers a rude reality check. A year passes, and images start to appear on the artist’s easel. The mind travels back and forth between here and there, and a haven is slowly created where these memories are cherished and relived through the brush. The past connects to the present, like receiving a postcard you once sent to yourself while having the time of your life.

It’s time to break for lunch. Sitting with baked beans and salad, the dog keeps harassing you to play fetch with one of your favourite socks. A quick check of the phone reveals the world is falling apart. An orange toad is infiltrating everything, making life hell for everyone except billionaire tech bros. The crabs continue their sideways dance across the sand. Coconuts keep falling and drifting out to sea. Buses will replace trains between Bendigo and Southern Cross for two weeks…

Rob McHaffie’s painting, drawing and ceramic portraiture of characters, both real and imagined, offer an engagement with themes of personal healing, family life, human relationships and the foibles of contemporary times. In his early works, these characters were clumsily modelled in clay, wigs or scrunched tissues. Their bodies intimated by empty piles of rumpled clothing. He added scraps of fabric, found objects and other bric-a-brac to create imagined scenery.
A period living in Southeast Asia in 2011 saw McHaffie’s work adopt a spiritual focus and comment on the Western trope of searching for enlightenment, a tradition he was acutely aware of continuing. References to Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Tai chi and other cultural traditions are interspersed with imagery of artists; Matisse, Michelangelo and Rousseau, making his predispositions known. These works also saw the inclusion of lush green vegetation, inspired by the landscape around him.
Rob McHaffie has been the recipient of several awards and residencies. In 2016 he won the Local Art Prize, Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize, Bayside Arts and Cultural Centre, Melbourne, and in 2014 won the Geelong contemporary art prize and was shortlisted for the prestigious Basil Sellers Art Prize, Melbourne. In 2012 he was awarded the Art & Australia / Credit Suisse Private Banking Contemporary Art Award. In 2011 McHaffie received an Asialink residency at Rimbun Dahan, Malaysia and in 2007 he was a recipient of the Cité Internationale des Arts Residency, Paris, France.
McHaffie has exhibited across Australia and New Zealand. His work is held in public collections in Australia including the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne; Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne; City of Stonnington Collection, Melbourne; Bayside City Council Collection, Melbourne and the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne.

Installation view, photograph: Nicholas Mahady

BOOK LAUNCH
6pm Thursday 21 May

Buxton International will launch their forthcoming publication, Do Paintings Get Jealous of Windows: Rob McHaffie, during the exhibition. This book has been designed by Tristan Ceddia at TRiC and edited by Luisa Bosci with texts by Charlotte Day, Amelia Wallin and Lisa Radford.

A conversation with contributors, Lisa Radford, Amelia Wallin and Rob McHaffie to be moderated by Charlotte Day will begin at 6.30 pm.