A contemporary landscape artist, Christophe Stibio has long developed a unique visual language rooted in paradox.

His latest solo show at Magma galleries features a 20-metre-long installation that responded directly to Tom Kovac’s architectural vision, while drawing inspiration from Lake Mungo in NSW.

Organic lines and a carefully chosen palette echoes the building’s circular mezzanine wall, pulling viewers into a dialogue between architecture, landscape, and perception.

Stibio’s meticulous, almost architectural works combine shredded strips of recycled documents with fluid brushstrokes and singing lines.

“The face of that helical multi-heights 20m long wall immediately turned on my desire to match the notion of infinite possibilities it procured at first sight," says Stibio.

"In the end, the painting itself engaged in perfect permeability with its support in one monumental hydra, encompassing all its elements: Its cone shape, its surface, length and ascending line.”

This blend speaks to his years of observing and deconstructing the Australian landscape, as well as his training at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou, China.

His strong connection to Asian culture is visible in his layering process, influenced by traditional Chinese guo hua (ink wash), where repeated washes build both depth and fragility.

This exhibition embraces paradox in its purest form: the attempt to capture the ephemeral.

By immersing visitors in the shifting mists of morning, Stibio reflects on the fleeting yet eternal cycles of nature. His work reveals what is often invisible in the landscape, bridging the seen and unseen, permanence and transience.

True Mornings, Never Real opens Saturday, 6 September, from 2–5pm at Magma Galleries, 5 Bedford Street, Collingwood.

Images: Stibio's solo show at Magma galleries presents a 20-metre installation inspired by Tom Kovac’s vision / supplied

Clémence Carayol

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