The Erin Pearson Collection

A private collection · Brisbane

Untitled
Untitled
Untitled

Untitled

Chase Archer

The Work

A screenprint on ply panel, its warm timber ground left partly exposed and worked into the composition itself. Two seated figures anchor the scene — one bowed forward, head in hand; the other, masked, reading a newspaper — flanking a hazy, static-filled screen and a crowd rendered in fine halftone dot. The combination of stillness, disquiet, and near-comic detail is characteristic of Archer's early style.

Buying from a graduating printmaker, on the recommendation of someone whose eye I'd come to trust, is exactly the kind of collecting I've always loved most — backing someone early, before the rest of the art world catches on. I'd just started building what would become a great working relationship with Tim — one that lasted the entire time I owned ARTIS PURA — and his instincts were right. Watching Chase go on to Honours and a PhD at QCA in the years since has made this piece feel even more special to hold.

Year
2015
Medium
Screenprint on ply panel
Image size
900 mm x 600 mm
Framed size
935 mm x 635 mm

Provenance

I purchased this piece directly from the Queensland College of Art graduate show, in Chase's graduating year. I'd just started what would become a long-standing working relationship with Tim Mosely, head of the printmaking department at QCA, and he told me Chase was one to watch. On his word, I went along to the grad show and bought this piece.

Ask about the price, make an offer, or simply ask a question — payment is arranged directly (bank transfer, PayID, or cash).

← Back to the collection

Framing

Because the work was printed on a thick panel, I needed to build extra depth into the float frame to properly house it. I added a champagne fillet trim to the face of the moulding — this solved the depth problem, but it also turned out to complement the piece's tonal palette beautifully, tying the warm timber ground and the muted colours together.

About Chase Archer

Chase Archer is an artist living and working in the South Moreton Bay Islands, a Queensland College of Art graduate who has gone on to exhibit in Brisbane, Cairns, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, and Queenstown, Tasmania, following a month-long residency there. His work is distinguished by finely painted figures set against a signature plywood backdrop, drawing on sources from the western art canon, botanical illustration, and pop culture to create scenes that sit somewhere between dreamlike and nightmarish. Archer completed his Bachelor of Fine Art at QCA in 2016, going on to Honours and later a PhD at the same institution — a strong indicator, even early on, of the serious and sustained practice he'd go on to build.