Mark Misic, East / The Most Fierce, 2024, acrylic on board, 46 x 46 cm

Mark Misic

Transient Luminous Events – Diamond Paintings

April 10 – May 2, 2026

Transient Luminous Events brings together Misic’s instinctive use of gesture, texture and colour in a new series of diamond-shaped paintings that continue his exploration of the intersection between human experience, primordial landscape and universal phenomena.

The exhibition takes its title from naturally occurring upper-atmospheric phenomena—fleeting electrical storms visible only through high-speed photography. Known as TLEs, these events are named by scientists in whimsical terms such as sprites, elves, pixies, trolls, gnomes and ghosts. Misic is drawn to this merging of scientific language and myth, reflecting his broader interest in folklore, spirituality, personal encounters with nature and the paranormal.

The exhibition comprises three groups of works. The TLE diamond paintings are named after spirits drawn from both science and folklore. Eight Directions is a series of small mandala paintings referencing the eight mythical Charnel Grounds of Buddhist cosmology. The third group presents a large tessellated pattern based on a mutating swastika motif that transforms into a labyrinth, suggesting instability and transformation.

The rotated square format allows each painting to function as both portrait and mandala. Composed of two intersecting triangles, they form symbolic portals: the upward-pointing triangle represents the masculine principle, Shiva; the downward-pointing triangle signifies the feminine principle, Shakti—key elements in Tantric philosophy.

Silver is layered throughout the works as a personal and transcendental motif. Both reflective and immersive, it conjures and mirrors the surrounding world, referencing the gilded surfaces of Tibetan Buddhist Thangka paintings.

Misic’s interest in abstraction began in his youth while hang gliding in Bright, Victoria, and encountering the work of British painter Peter Lanyon, whose embodied experience of flight informed his gestural mark-making. As part of his yoga teacher training in 2017, Misic travelled to Bhutan, where he visited temples and the National Art School in the capital, Thimphu.