this is not a surrealism - a manifesto for and against the simulacra of surrealism
this is not a surrealism - a manifesto for and against the simulacra of surrealism
two black feathers boxed together, oil on linen 30.5x38cm
two black feathers boxed together, oil on linen 30.5x38cm

Bibliography:
This is Not a Surrealism - A Manifesto for and against the Simulcara of Surrealism,
Sydney: Apothecary Archive Publishing, 2024.

“Ontological Withdrawal and the Symbols of Symbolism” Senzacornice - Rivista online di arte contemporanea e critica, 23 “Simbolo”, Nov 2020 - Feb 2021.

Studies:
Hunter’s Dog

Trial (with Mama Conducting the Fish), oil on linen 30.5x38cm
Trial (with Mama Conducting the Fish), oil on linen 30.5x38cm
Live, oil on linen, 203x107cm
Live, oil on linen, 203x107cm
Is this anything? wip, 102x76cm
Is this anything? wip, 102x76cm
Melancholy of the Moment (Ecologies of inception), oil on linen, 46x60cm
Melancholy of the Moment (Ecologies of inception), oil on linen, 46x60cm

Named after Simone Ferracina’s book. 

Salon des Refusé: 2025 “Lethbridge 20 000 Small Scale Art Award” Lethbridge Gallery, Paddington QLD.

Ecologies of Inception (Easter Hallucination), oil on linen,  80x100cm
Ecologies of Inception (Easter Hallucination), oil on linen, 80x100cm

One evening I was retiring in bed looking across the room at my painting, “Melancholy of the Moment (Ecologies of inception), and I instantaneously imagined that painting painted onto an egg.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYtSInGhnwi/?igsh=MXhlN3BmdjAxdjNyeA==

The God of AI (Spectral Apparition), oil on linen,  80x100cm
The God of AI (Spectral Apparition), oil on linen, 80x100cm
Coffee and catastrophe, oil on linen, 107x132cm
Coffee and catastrophe, oil on linen, 107x132cm
Passing of a Seaplane (Apparition Prompted by the Passing of a Seaplane), oil on linen 107x132cm
Passing of a Seaplane (Apparition Prompted by the Passing of a Seaplane), oil on linen 107x132cm
Sensual Ontographic Assemblage, oil on linen 30.5x40cm
Sensual Ontographic Assemblage, oil on linen 30.5x40cm

A Portrait as a collection of objects, as an interrelationship between active personalities, concrete objects, some confusions, and some illusions.
+

Exhibitions:
2023, “SUPRA: 100 Years of Global Connections” International Student Lounge, The University of Sydney, NSW.
Finalist: 2020 “Lethbridge 20 000 Small Scale Art Award” Lethbridge Gallery, Paddington QLD.
Finalist: 2020 “Collie Art Prize” Collie Art Gallery, Collie WA.
+

Prints Available:
https://www.pineapplegallery.com.au/buy-prints/simon-weir-sensual-ontographic-assemblage-portrait-of-my-wife/

Studies: Electrolyte Requiem.

Environmental Paradox (unfinished), oil on copper 30x40cm
Environmental Paradox (unfinished), oil on copper 30x40cm
Anecdote, oil on linen, diptych  66x107cm and 51x40.6cm
Anecdote, oil on linen, diptych 66x107cm and 51x40.6cm
The Architectural Uncanny, oil on linen on board 35x27cm
The Architectural Uncanny, oil on linen on board 35x27cm

The Architectural Uncanny is a transitional painting, and return to dream-oriented, unconsciously figured, inspirationally motivated, Surrealism. Drawn in a Catalan cafe over 5 days, then painted with great intensity in two sessions one on Figueres then one in Sydney three years later. It depicts an unconscious, multi-generational, romantic idealisation in the appearance of four people, uncanny architecture, public sculpture and distant landscape.

Inland catastrophe (what am i to do?), oil on linen, 38x30.5cm
Inland catastrophe (what am i to do?), oil on linen, 38x30.5cm
Imaginary Magpie, oil on linen 30.5x40.6  (private collection)
Imaginary Magpie, oil on linen 30.5x40.6 (private collection)

The shadows we cast onto our landscapes, and the spectres that seem so real but defy validation. We live in both the real and the imaginary.

The painting in the painting exists as a separate study - see here.

+

Exhibitions:
Finalist: 2022 “Lethbridge 20 000 Small Scale Art Award”, Lethbridge Gallery, Paddington QLD.
Shortlist, 2021 “Into the Light”, Whitewall Art Prize, Berrima NSW.

Painting recoloured 2022.

"No Mooring" (Romantic Freedom), oil on linen 107x132cm (private collection)
"No Mooring" (Romantic Freedom), oil on linen 107x132cm (private collection)

Featured in Talking with Painters "Entrants to the 2024 Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes talk with Maria Stoljar" (YouTube)

Blackfeather Sanctuary, oil on linen 30.5x40.6cm  (private collection)
Blackfeather Sanctuary, oil on linen 30.5x40.6cm (private collection)

In the infra-realism of object-oriented ontology, reality is withdrawn behind the sensual. Art’s sensual objects have conscious and unconscious qualities that generate convincing illusions of impossible objects. When the subject of art is the withdrawn real, we see concealing veils.

The Blackfeather Sanctuary is celebrated and elevated while remaining withdrawn, veiled, decoyed, tended and guarded.
+
Exhibitions:
Finalist: 2021 “Lethbridge 20 000 Small Scale Art Award”, Lethbridge Gallery, Paddington QLD.

Bibliography:
“Ontological Withdrawal and the Symbols of Symbolism” Senzacornice - Rivista online di arte contemporanea e critica, 23 “Simbolo”, Nov 2020 - Feb 2021.
“Object Oriented Ontology and Architectural Darkness”Odyssey, Harvest, Sydney, 2021, pp.148-151.

Spectre Cluster on the Wharf, oil on linen 30.5x40.6cm (private collection)
Spectre Cluster on the Wharf, oil on linen 30.5x40.6cm (private collection)
this is not a surrealism - a manifesto for and against the simulacra of surrealism
two black feathers boxed together, oil on linen 30.5x38cm
Trial (with Mama Conducting the Fish), oil on linen 30.5x38cm
Live, oil on linen, 203x107cm
Is this anything? wip, 102x76cm
Melancholy of the Moment (Ecologies of inception), oil on linen, 46x60cm
Ecologies of Inception (Easter Hallucination), oil on linen,  80x100cm
The God of AI (Spectral Apparition), oil on linen,  80x100cm
Coffee and catastrophe, oil on linen, 107x132cm
Passing of a Seaplane (Apparition Prompted by the Passing of a Seaplane), oil on linen 107x132cm
Sensual Ontographic Assemblage, oil on linen 30.5x40cm
Environmental Paradox (unfinished), oil on copper 30x40cm
Anecdote, oil on linen, diptych  66x107cm and 51x40.6cm
The Architectural Uncanny, oil on linen on board 35x27cm
Inland catastrophe (what am i to do?), oil on linen, 38x30.5cm
Imaginary Magpie, oil on linen 30.5x40.6  (private collection)
"No Mooring" (Romantic Freedom), oil on linen 107x132cm (private collection)
Blackfeather Sanctuary, oil on linen 30.5x40.6cm  (private collection)
Spectre Cluster on the Wharf, oil on linen 30.5x40.6cm (private collection)
this is not a surrealism - a manifesto for and against the simulacra of surrealism
two black feathers boxed together, oil on linen 30.5x38cm

Bibliography:
This is Not a Surrealism - A Manifesto for and against the Simulcara of Surrealism,
Sydney: Apothecary Archive Publishing, 2024.

“Ontological Withdrawal and the Symbols of Symbolism” Senzacornice - Rivista online di arte contemporanea e critica, 23 “Simbolo”, Nov 2020 - Feb 2021.

Studies:
Hunter’s Dog

Trial (with Mama Conducting the Fish), oil on linen 30.5x38cm
Live, oil on linen, 203x107cm
Is this anything? wip, 102x76cm
Melancholy of the Moment (Ecologies of inception), oil on linen, 46x60cm

Named after Simone Ferracina’s book. 

Salon des Refusé: 2025 “Lethbridge 20 000 Small Scale Art Award” Lethbridge Gallery, Paddington QLD.

Ecologies of Inception (Easter Hallucination), oil on linen, 80x100cm

One evening I was retiring in bed looking across the room at my painting, “Melancholy of the Moment (Ecologies of inception), and I instantaneously imagined that painting painted onto an egg.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYtSInGhnwi/?igsh=MXhlN3BmdjAxdjNyeA==

The God of AI (Spectral Apparition), oil on linen, 80x100cm
Coffee and catastrophe, oil on linen, 107x132cm
Passing of a Seaplane (Apparition Prompted by the Passing of a Seaplane), oil on linen 107x132cm
Sensual Ontographic Assemblage, oil on linen 30.5x40cm

A Portrait as a collection of objects, as an interrelationship between active personalities, concrete objects, some confusions, and some illusions.
+

Exhibitions:
2023, “SUPRA: 100 Years of Global Connections” International Student Lounge, The University of Sydney, NSW.
Finalist: 2020 “Lethbridge 20 000 Small Scale Art Award” Lethbridge Gallery, Paddington QLD.
Finalist: 2020 “Collie Art Prize” Collie Art Gallery, Collie WA.
+

Prints Available:
https://www.pineapplegallery.com.au/buy-prints/simon-weir-sensual-ontographic-assemblage-portrait-of-my-wife/

Studies: Electrolyte Requiem.

Environmental Paradox (unfinished), oil on copper 30x40cm
Anecdote, oil on linen, diptych 66x107cm and 51x40.6cm
The Architectural Uncanny, oil on linen on board 35x27cm

The Architectural Uncanny is a transitional painting, and return to dream-oriented, unconsciously figured, inspirationally motivated, Surrealism. Drawn in a Catalan cafe over 5 days, then painted with great intensity in two sessions one on Figueres then one in Sydney three years later. It depicts an unconscious, multi-generational, romantic idealisation in the appearance of four people, uncanny architecture, public sculpture and distant landscape.

Inland catastrophe (what am i to do?), oil on linen, 38x30.5cm
Imaginary Magpie, oil on linen 30.5x40.6 (private collection)

The shadows we cast onto our landscapes, and the spectres that seem so real but defy validation. We live in both the real and the imaginary.

The painting in the painting exists as a separate study - see here.

+

Exhibitions:
Finalist: 2022 “Lethbridge 20 000 Small Scale Art Award”, Lethbridge Gallery, Paddington QLD.
Shortlist, 2021 “Into the Light”, Whitewall Art Prize, Berrima NSW.

Painting recoloured 2022.

"No Mooring" (Romantic Freedom), oil on linen 107x132cm (private collection)

Featured in Talking with Painters "Entrants to the 2024 Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes talk with Maria Stoljar" (YouTube)

Blackfeather Sanctuary, oil on linen 30.5x40.6cm (private collection)

In the infra-realism of object-oriented ontology, reality is withdrawn behind the sensual. Art’s sensual objects have conscious and unconscious qualities that generate convincing illusions of impossible objects. When the subject of art is the withdrawn real, we see concealing veils.

The Blackfeather Sanctuary is celebrated and elevated while remaining withdrawn, veiled, decoyed, tended and guarded.
+
Exhibitions:
Finalist: 2021 “Lethbridge 20 000 Small Scale Art Award”, Lethbridge Gallery, Paddington QLD.

Bibliography:
“Ontological Withdrawal and the Symbols of Symbolism” Senzacornice - Rivista online di arte contemporanea e critica, 23 “Simbolo”, Nov 2020 - Feb 2021.
“Object Oriented Ontology and Architectural Darkness”Odyssey, Harvest, Sydney, 2021, pp.148-151.

Spectre Cluster on the Wharf, oil on linen 30.5x40.6cm (private collection)
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