About the artwork

Your best is good enough for me is a new text work by Melbourne based artist, Jon Campbell. Remembered from a conversation with a friend, the seven words project dynamically into public space, addressing the viewer with a sense of faith or belief in people and their best efforts, no matter how big or small. It projects an affirmative and hopeful – if somewhat melancholy – mood of the moment, with a sense of care, empathy and belief in others.

As a sentimental appeal to the viewer, the affirmative spirit of the text is matched by the dynamic optical play of positive and negative space, and of colour and reflection, in a push-me-pull-you abstraction which requires the active involvement of the viewer to unravel the text – which might also involve reciting the phrase in their head, or passing it on to a friend.

About the artist

Jon Campbell has been a fixture on the Australian art scene since he first began exhibiting paintings of suburban youth culture in the 1980s. His masterfully realised paintings, collages, banners, neons, flags and songs demonstrate his love of suburbia and its vernacular language. Popular music, printing, design and sport also feature heavily in his practice.

Who’s Afraid of Public Space at ACCA

Jon Campbell, 'Your best is good enough for me' 2021 is presented in association with the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), as part of their 2022 summer season exhibition Who’s Afraid of Public Space?