One has to develop a taste for Muia's drawing but when you do you'll find them rich and rewarding.  The wandering line, the precise cross hatching, the slurp of coloured wash that seems to go about its business of blending with a mind of its own, are all very palatable.  But be warned, the imagery that needs a certain amount of courage to digest.

Muia gives us people who live in the real world, not those mediated ideals found in traditional painting or contemporary film. With imperfect features these folk strike awkward poses, at times exposing their genitalia. Crude they may be but lewd is always in the eye of the beholder.

Muia observes contemporary society, the marginal and the mainstream, to produce slice-of-life scenarios or narratives of domestic episodes.  Some are simple and obvious like Girl with Hairdresser, while others are more ambiguous, set in cluttered environs of muted shapes or unusual props.  For example, Couple Near Draws is a haunting image of a woman reaching out to cradle the head and shoulders of a man. Beneath her is a grey shape that suggests a detached head, a shadowy replica of the defined man.  Why does the woman seem sad?  Is she protecting the man?  From what? Who or what is the suggested interloper?  A memory, a death?  Innocent or sinister?

Then there are the 'portraits' such as Couple, or Black Dog where a young man and woman hold hands as they emerge from a murky shadowy crowd.  Together with their black Pit Bull they form a 'family' and all three are tough enough to take on whatever comes their way. They are real people, pierced or tattooed, we all know many like them.  They are not perfect or pretty like those who populate TV soaps.

What first draws us to these images is our curiosity, and to an extent, our voyeurism.  But once we engage with Muia's works we find something more fascinating than the grotesque.  There is beauty on the surface, the drawn line and colour are entities of their own.  At times they form elements of the image, while at other times they are for the sheer enjoyment of doing, seeing and being elements of art.

If you can't get to the gallery to view the works in situ you could try calling them up on-line at www.domino-effect.com.au