Gallery 2
Diamond Flower-Talisman Jam
22 July - 2 August 2026
Opening night
24 July | 6 - 8 pm
Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Sunday: 10 am – 5 pm (please note last day of exhibition ends at 3pm)
ARTIST STATEMENT
Diamond Flowers – Talisman Jams, brings together Mark Misic instinctive approach to gesture, texture, and colour in a striking new series of diamond - shaped paintings. In these works Misic continues to jam in the intersection of science and myth, reflecting his interest in mysticism, magic and personal encounters with nature and the universal phenomena.
Fascinated by how flowers are used in temple rituals, Misic invokes these flower paintings as metaphysical talismans, painterly portals that charge the space between the seen and the unseen, creating subtle and direct connections between the viewer and the larger universal field, where looking flows both ways. Each diamond mandala is named after a plant associated with both magical lore and natural healing. While Western mythology links these plants to elemental spirits like fairies, modern science reveals that the compounds within these flowers form the basis of many contemporary pharmacological treatments.
Misic sees paint as a medium embedded with a light medicine that conjures and connects to the magic of nature and to source. The rotated square format allows each painting to function as a mandala. Composed of two intersecting triangles, the upward-pointing triangle represents the celestial realms, while the downward-pointing triangle signifies the underworld.
Silver is layered throughout the works as a transcendental motif. Reflective and immersive, it mirrors the world, referencing the gilded surfaces of mystical artworks across both Eastern and Western traditions. An important reference is Edvard Munch’s ocular sketches, where he rendered the visions through his damaged right eye.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Misic is concerned with the intersection of the physical human experience and universal
phenomenology. His work explores the strange couplings, flows, and alliances that
occur when our internal systems of self-governance and human physicality merge with
the primordial landscape.
He is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, drawing, photography,
performance, and installation. Misic has had multiple solo and group exhibitions
nationally, and has participated in cross-cultural projects abroad. While studying visual
art, he was mentored in life drawing by Yvonne Audette.
He has been a member of numerous art groups: Damp, TramJatra (Melbourne &
Kolkata Tramway Friendship), ArtTag, and Beautiful Chaos. His artistic interests include
contemporary dance, authentic movement, Butoh, and community theatre.
Misic has traveled, studied, and worked extensively. He studied Fine Art at the Emily
Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada, served as a crew member at a
community TV station in Arnhem Land, volunteered in a remote Guatemalan animal
refuge (caring for jaguars, monkeys, and scarlet macaws), traveled to Bhutan as part of
his yoga teacher training, and worked as a tram conductor in Melbourne between
university courses.
Misic is a qualified yoga teacher holding a Master of Fine Art, a Bachelor of Fine Art,
and a Diploma of Education. He has also undertaken studies in psychology, politics, and
history.
ARTIST CV
Mark Misic
Qualifications: Master of Fine Art, Monash University, Bachelor of Fine Art, Victorian College of the Arts, Diploma of Teaching, Melbourne University.
Other studies: Psychology, Sociology, History, Politics and Literature
TriYoga International Basic and Level 1.
Exhibitions
Major exhibitions
2026 Diamond flowers-Talisman Jams, Red Gallery, Fitzroy, Australia.
Transient Luminous Events-diamond paintings, 5 Walls, Footscray, Australia.
Conditions for re-entry Part 2, NorthSite Cairns, Australia.
2025 Rainshadow, Magnet Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
Scene & Seen, Kilderkin Distillery, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Ballarat, Australia.
2021 What's the story, with Glen O’Malley, ArtView Gallery, Cairns, Australia.
2020 Short Experimental Video's, with Sue O'Malley, The Shed, Cairns, Australia.
2018 Wild Cries of HaHa/Black Mountain Paintings and Drawings, Atherton Regional Gallery, Atherton, Australia.
2017 Black Mountain - Where the Four Winds Kiss, Canopy Art Space, Cairns, Australia.
2015 Constructivist Love, Crate 59, Cairns, Australia.
2013 Conditions for Re-entry, NCCA, Darwin, Australia.
2012 Conditions for Re-entry, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns, Australia.
2009 Best of both worlds, GrantPirrie Gallery, Sydney, Australia.
2008 Kundalini Test, 24HrArt, Darwin, Australia.
2007 The other side of paradise-A northern exposure, with Talitha Kennedy, TCB Art Inc, Melbourne, Australia.
2006 Cleverman's Guides to Speaks and Spells in the Coloured Zone, DVAA, Darwin, Australia.
2003 Double00, Kings ARI, Melbourne, Australia.
Here I Come, Faculty Gallery, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Let's Kiss and Take Out the Trash, with Lisa Radford, TCB Art Inc, Melbourne, Australia.
2002 Playing Field B, TCB Art Inc, Melbourne, Australia
2000 Blind Owl, TCB Art Inc, Melbourne, Australia.
1997 Moonlight Juggler, Grey Area ARI, Melbourne, Australia.
1996 Mr Ticklebrush, Small Space, Melbourne, Australia.
Select group
2025 Threshold, Northsite Contemporary, Cairns, Australia.
2024 Another Layer, Magnet Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
Finalist Percival Photographic Portrait Prize, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, Australia.
2023 Time and Space/artist member show, Umbrella Studio & Contemporary Arts, Townsville, Australia.
2021 Deepen the Mystery, Art View Gallery, Bayview Heights, Australia.
2019 Crate ten year anniversary, Tanks Art Centre, Cairns, Australia.
2017 Finalist Art Now FNQ, Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns, Australia.
2014 Head-incidents above a bar part 4, Alderman Gallery, East Brunswick, Australia.
2008 Northern Gothic, DVAA, Darwin, Australia.
2007 Territory Icon, 24HrArt, Darwin, Australia.
2006 Packet Agency, Storage, Vancouver, Canada.
Wet and Dry, 24HrArt, Darwin, Australia.
2003 Out Takes, Kings ARI, Melbourne, Australia.
Glacier, QUT, Brisbane, Australia.
Glacier, Newcastle Regional Gallery, Newcastle Australia.
Glacier, Benalla Regional Art Gallery, Benalla, Australia.
Finalist New Works on Paper, Morning Peninsula Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
New-D, Mass Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
2001 Glacier, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
Groups & projects
2016 Club Stendhal
2016 Get a Move on
2016 Beautiful Chaos
2002 Damp Collective
2001 Art Tag
2001 Tram Tactic
2001 Tram Jatra
Publications
2024 DAMP, Rosemary Forde, 3 Ply, Melbourne.
2024 Percivals, Townsville City Galleries, Townsville.
2022 What's the story: Mark Misic & Glen O'Malley.
2005 Tramjatra: Mike Douglas, RMIT Press, Melbourne.
Artist books
2025 Back & Forth: Naruto Ohashi, Phil Bayly, Liis Eriline, YuXiao Mu, Peter Kelly, Judi Dransfield Kupper,Gaeme Hastwell, Mark Misic, Glen O Malley.
2024 Another Layer: Hiromi Ashlin, Phil Bayly, Katherine Cornwall, Judi Dransfield Kuepper, Yvonne Hering, Susan Leway, Jonathan McBurnie, Ron McBurnie, Peter Minon, Mark Misic, Roland Nancarrow, Stephen Nothling, Sue O'Malley, Roy Oorloff, Adele Outteridge, David Rowe, Anneke Silver, lan Smith, Ange Vernardos, John Waldron.
2021 Whisper 2: Glen OMalley, Cameron Longshaw, Emma Sub, Mark Misic MinXu, Caroline Duffy, Jarrah Toussaint, Phillip Bayly
2020 Whisper 1: Glen OMalley, Cameron Longshaw, Emma Sub, Mark Misic, MinXu, Caroline Duffy, Jarrah Toussaint, Phillip Bayly
2006 Love Songs Artist book: L. Radford & N. Desmond
Bibliography
Bandyopadhyay, D.N, Brown, P & Conti, A Landscape, Place & Culture: Linkages Between Australia & India, Cambridge Scholars, Publishing; New edition, Jan, 2011.
Douglas, M.R. Carriage: cultural transports & transformations of a socially-engaged public art practice, RMIT University, 2010.
Crawford, A. Undiscovered, Australian Art Collector, April, 2007.
Langford, B. Latest works, NT News, October 27, 2006.
Nelson, R. Playful pick of the crop, Age, Melbourne, Aug 27, 2003.
Williams, L. Reflection and reconstruction: New Directions in Australian Painting: Glacier catalogue, RMIT University, Melbourne,2001.
Nelson, R. The death of painting a little premature, Age, Sept 22,2001.
Attwil, S. Tramjatra: imagining Melbourne / Calcutta by Tramways, Statesmen Newspaper, Kolkata, India, Feb 21, 2001.
Das, S. Right of Passage, rites of spring, Telegraph Newspaper, Kolkata, India, Feb 21, 2001.
McQualter, A. Moonlight Juggler: Reviews, Like, No 1, Melbourne, 1996.