Season is proud to present Swan Crash, a group of new paintings by Tony Guo. The artist describes the exhibition as a ‘queer allegory of embodied history’, calling to mind allegorical paintings from centuries past, with their lofty moral and social themes. Yet the works are anything but classical. They are populated by cavorting barnyard animals, household appliances, industrial structures, outsized vegetables, and plastic toys, along with various nude self-portraits. The motifs allude to Guo’s lived experiences as well as the experiences of members of his family. He observes: ‘Concepts of collective labour, survival, industrialism, materialism, and escape are central to my parents’ and grandparents’ experiences in northeastern China in the 20th century. Vestiges of these histories still stand as an authority over me. Swan Crash ruminates on the idea of 祸 (huò), which can be translated as ‘crash’, ‘accident’, or ‘disaster’. 祸 puts me in mind of many things, from mischievous childish acts to a sense of fated tragedy. It resonates with how I understand my queerness—something that causes trouble and attracts penalisation.’ Although they are informed by particular experiences and histories, Guo’s pictures do not offer straightforward messages. Like their surrealist predecessors, they are slippery, inviting shifting and multiple interpretations. Guo depends to a large extent on intuition when painting. Imagery, gestures, and colours are deployed as and when they feel necessary. The resulting collisions are at once unexpected and convincing. Nonsense coexists alongside meaning, mystery alongside certainty, whimsy alongside pathos, freedom alongside control.