EXHIBITION: ROB MCHAFFIE

Putty-like faces, moonscapes littered with plastic chairs, African fertility goddesses sipping cafe lattes, Willie Nelson lookalikes and banally misplaced artistic symbols (Hello, Picasso’s Cubist lady); Rob McHaffie’s work is anything but boring. Although, at first glance, his pieces almost come across commonplace – small, stripped back canvases presented with little to-do. But beneath standard scenes a surreal world simmers, stoked by a tinder-dry humour. A boy wearing a voodoo mask sits in a mouldy bathtub – Is ‘home and away’ on yet? A big-bellied, and no doubt verbose spliff-sucking hippy quips, I should tidy, the real estate guy is coming at 3. McHaffie takes the name of his exhibition, Step out of character, become yourself from the Nimbin museum, an area in which he recently spent some time, ‘unplugging’ from technology. This title seems ironic – the faces are unreal and masklike, cult figures parade by, the charade is the ultimate self. At 29, McHaffie is prolific for someone so young. He’s a 2006 Primavera graduate, has staged four solo shows at Darren Knight and has also been seen at the prestigious Armory in New York. But he’s got the technical skills, teamed with a skewed world view and deadpan humour, that mark an artist truly ‘becoming himself’.

Until Aug 29, Darren Knight Gallery, 840 Elizabeth St, Waterloo, 9699 5353 or darrenknightgallery.com