Sydney Artist Joshua Charadia Jars Fleeting Moments In Surry Hills Solo Exhibition

Sydney artist Joshua Charadia, known for his signature (and jaw-dropping) photorealistic “motion blur” oil paintings, is unveiling eight new works this November.

The free exhibition, titled ‘Only a thin membrane between us’, will open on 19 November from 6pm at N.Smith Gallery in Surry Hills, with free entry for all and no RSVP required. 

According to Charadia, the exhibition was largely inspired by the artist’s own experience of sonder: the sense of connection one feels with total strangers as you become aware of the complexity and vividness of their lives.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the way in which, by total chance, our lives intersect with others,” Charadia told the Star Observer. “I may pass someone on the street, both of us on completely different paths, never to encounter each other again. But in that briefest of moments our lives are connected.

“The paintings in this show depict streetscapes at night, photographed in passing then translated into oils on board. Anonymous, silhouetted figures inhabit the scenes with me, sharing space and time yet held apart, separated by an intangible membrane between us.”

Charadia’s Signature “Motion Blur” Style

The featured paintings, exacted once again in Charadia’s characteristic  “motion blur” style, embody photorealisms and abstraction all at once. 

While Charadia was initially drawn to this style for the challenge of translating a digital effect into traditional media, the blur has since become a means of evoking the fleeting moments that make up so much of our lives, not to mention our equally elusive recollection of them.

“Over the last ten years of my practice, this motion blur has become the characteristic motif of my work, and taken on a deep conceptual significance, reflecting the elusive nature of memory and our contemporary experience of the world, which is often redacted or fugitive,” Charadia said.

It is Charadia’s hope for the exhibition that viewers see their own fleeting memories blurring across each canvas, the artist firmly denying that any “correct” interpretation of his paintings exists.

“I want my work to be ambiguous enough that it can conjure unique memories for each viewer, without imposing my own experiences on them,” Charadia said. “Similarly, I want the titles of the work to be open-ended so as not to insist on a particular meaning. My only hope is that each viewer feels something.”

Charadia’s exhibition will be open to the public until 12 December at N.Smith Gallery, 15 Foster Street Surry Hills. The solo exhibition will be showing alongside another by Vipoo Srivilasa, a queer, Melbourne-based artist and ceramicist.

About Joshua Charadia

Joshua Charadia is a Sydney-based artist who explores the nature of consciousness and perception. He translates his photographs of the built environment and its inhabitants into paintings and drawings to reveal their latent visual complexity, capturing moments of the sublime in the everyday.

Charadia has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Australia and internationally. He won the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing in 2023, and has been a finalist in numerous prizes including the Sir John Sulman Prize (2020), Dobell Drawing Prize (2021, 2019), and National Works on Paper Award (2026). 

His other accolades include an Art Incubator Grant (2022), the inaugural South West Sydney Award at the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (2021), People’s Choice at the Adelaide Perry Prize (2020), and 2nd place at the Belle ArtStart Prize (2018). His works are held in the Presbyterian Ladies’ College collection, National Art School collection, and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, the UK, and USA.