My paintings play with a tension between hiding and communicating. The images depict characters breaking pianos, grieving over violins, committing acts of betrayal, experiencing ecstasy and terror. Pulling from my own history as a musician, I am interested in conveying psychological states through narrative and destabilized compositions. Each painting portrays solitary figures struggling against the edges of the canvas and the instrument at hand, sometimes resisting and other times merging. Through rhythmic brushwork and bold marks the paintings convey cacophonous sound despite their inherent silence. These images pose questions about inner realities, creative struggles, loneliness, and divinity.

George Goodnow (they/them) is an artist based in Australia. Their practice ranges from painting and public murals, to sculpture and site-specific installations. Across their practice, Goodnow’s work focuses on relationships between people and built environments to explore themes of memory and queerness. They are interested in how objects hold memories, and how architecture reflects, orientates and holds bodies. Their work combines pattern and realism to record moments from everyday life and deconstruct experiences of space.
 
Goodnow has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at Ki Smith Gallery (New York), Science Gallery (Melbourne), Waiting Room - Sydney Sexual Health Centre (Sydney), Wollongong Art Gallery (Wollongong), Platform Arts (Geelong), The University of Newcastle Gallery (Newcastle) and Art Not Apart (Canberra).