Contemporary Fine Arts in Berlin is presenting 'Had a Farm', a solo exhibition by New Zealand-born artist Travis MacDonald, opening during Gallery Weekend Berlin 2026. The show features new paintings that explore countercultural aesthetics through long-haired, androgynous figures set in a rural-subcultural landscape, drawing on photographic archives of 1970s experimental communes and referencing Pier Paolo Pasolini's essay on hair as a political sign.
The exhibition matters because it uses intimate, oblique storytelling to address contemporary tensions between nonconformity and rising authoritarianism, without resorting to slogans. MacDonald's work, which earned him the 2024 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize, demonstrates how painting can engage with pressing social and political issues—such as housing crises and cultural clashes—while maintaining a distinct, atmospheric visual language that invites viewers into a charged space of identification and unease.