Fahn

Fahn (James Gardiner) makes embodied gestural floor drawings and mixed-media relief paintings that work at the edge of legibility. His two current series — Paper Sentience and Presence — are both concerned with ambiguity and the 'perspectival flip': the mind's capacity to hold multiple, irreconcilable readings of a single surface simultaneously. Working through human-machine co-fabrication, Fahn draws out the expressive signatures of both hand and machine, compounding misreading to open the viewer to a state of unknowing. The aim is presence: a moment of contemplation where the viewer completes the work.

Fahn's practice builds on two decades as an architect and inventor. His earlier career produced 13 patents, the world's first 3D-printed artificial reef (2011 – 14), and the FreeFAB Wax system (2012 – 17) — a construction-scale 3D printing technology used for the London Underground's Elizabeth Line. Recognised internationally with coverage in National Geographic, New Scientist, and The Economist, Fahn went on to complete a Master of Fine Art at the National Art School, Sydney, in 2024.

Works held in the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) and City of Sydney collections. Finalist: Sovereign Asian Art Prize (2026); Kedumba Drawing Award (2025). Represented by Art Atrium and Art Atrium 48, Sydney.