Troy Mendham
Untitled, 2021
Image courtesy of the Troy Mendham
"Pre-covid I usually travel to Byron Bay 2 or 3 times a year. On any given night at sunset along the foreshore, they have impromptu mini jam sessions with bongo players african drums and sometimes a trumpet or didgereedoo. It’s very rhythmic and can be heard on the wind all around town. It’s never planned and happens whenever the musicians feel like it. Groups of people gather, some dance, others just enjoy the music and watch the waves. These works capture the spirit of these moments. The colours are purposely muted for an emotive atmosphere."
- Troy Mendham
Troy Mendham is a figurative painter of contemporary scenes across a range of media that includes canvas, archival paper and occasionally the more unexpected such as his beer-box paintings. Troy's works are often small in scale and he uses strategies such as raw gestural lines and instinctual mark-making as a counterpoint to the increasing prevalence of sanitised, polished art delivered neatly via smartphone screens.
A visual artist living and working in Melbourne, Troy graduated from RMIT with a Bachelor of Graphic Design but soon returned to his first love - painting. His early promise was recognised by inclusion in the inaugural TopArts exhibition at the NGV in 1998. More recently he was a finalist in the St Michaels Archangel Art Prize and winner of the Waverly Art Prize for drawing. Troy has had a number of solo exhibitions and been included in numerous group shows in Melbourne, Sydney and New York.
For more information about Troy Mendham visit