“Tracing the Melbourne artist’s photorealist graphite renderings of fruit, foliage and figure, Mad Deep Thoughts captures Riley Payne’s technical acumen and offbeat humor to equal effect. Comprising uncanny accumulations and pairings of classical forms and Google image search results, Payne’s fastidiously realized drawings might be considered in terms of collage.” -Perimeter Books

“These are reflections on our hilarious and slightly disturbing state of affairs as much as they are gags. Payne’s works capture and wrangle the vaguely biographical images, texts and details we not only release, but also actively flaunt, in the increasingly pervasive public domain.” -Afterword by Dan Rule