Image: John Foubister, Birds and flowers near a bush giving a peace sign, 2019/20, oil paint on board, photograph Michael Kluvanek.
Creativity and collaboration are at the heart of innovation. Since 2018 UniSA Business has partnered with Guildhouse to present works by contemporary South Australian visual artists to encourage reflection and inspire new ideas.
Seen and Thought
John Foubister
6 February – 8 May 2025
Yungondi Building, UniSA City West Campus
Artist talk with John Foubister
13 March 2025, 1:30–2:30pm
Free, RSVP here
Artist Statement
My will to paint is sustained by the idea that I can re-present every lived experience with the application of paint on a two dimensional surface. Also by consideration of ideas about the nature of human reality and its formation. I utilise doubt as a positive contributor to my process, and am preoccupied with spaces. The spaces between things, words and thoughts. I think about the existence of that which I am not able to think. In tandem I have a love of the natural world and a long- standing interest in Animist belief systems. I contemplate the experience of our world that other life forms possibly have. I use paint to attempt to approximate how the world fits together, and forms in my mind.
About the artist
John Foubister produces paintings and drawings developed from his interest in philosophy, the role of the imagination in creating realities, and from a love of nature. Recently he has been exploring the relationship between humanity and the natural world, with a particular interest in Animist belief systems.
John has held solo exhibitions in Adelaide, Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, and participated in group shows in Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.
While continuing to produce art works he also maintained full time and part time paid employment. In the early 1990’s John was a technician at numerous galleries in Adelaide. For ten years in the 1990’s and 2000’s he was an Arts Worker for Community Bridging Services, working with people with disabilities. This included curating six exhibitions of their work, four being held at the Adelaide Festival Centre. John was an Arts Worker with Uniting Communities from 2010 to 2018, for three years working with people who were homeless, and for six years with people living with addiction. In 2023 he was employed by the Goolwa Community Centre, funded by a Richard Llewelyn Grant, as a mentor for an artist with disabilities, assisting her to produce art works for an exhibition that was held in the South Coast Regional Arts Centre.
John works from a home based shed in Goolwa, South Australia on Ngarrindjeri and Ramindjeri land.
Image: John Foubister, Life on the ground, 2017, Oil paint on board, 122×81 cm, photograph Michael Kluvanek.
Please note: The UniSA Business School Yungondi Building is open Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm.
