Mark Rodda's figurative works, for the most part, draw on elements of the Romantic tradition in 19th century European painting, these compositions also include touches of Mysticism and Folklore. His abstract creations take inspiration from early to mid 20th century modernism. Describing his paintings as ‘pure escapism’, he encourages the viewer to construct their own narrative from the ambiguous sign-posts contained within the works. Alongside his landscape works, Rodda paints abstracts that explore the process of painting and the interplay of deliberate and crafted form with spontaneous mark making. His abstract paintings ruminate on the fractal-like links between cosmic and molecular themes; the macro and the micro; the universe and atom. 

Born 1973 in Tasmania, Rodda has held over 17 solo exhibitions in Australia and New Zealand and has shown in group exhibitions and festivals internationally and around the country. In 2013 he was a finalist in the Wynne Prize for landscape at the Art Gallery of NSW and in 2014 won the Glover Prize, Australia’s richest prize for landscape painting. Rodda is represented in private and public collections including Artbank, the Glover Prize Collection, the Trust Bank Collection, Australian Catholic University, and MONA.