Chris O'Doherty aka Reg Mombassa

It takes a worried man to sing a worried song, and Reg Mombassa's latest show at Watters Gallery sees the erstwhile Aussie rock star continuing to mull over the issues that trouble him.

The new exhibition, of around 80 paintings, works on paper and prints, has a title that reads like a shopping list: Trunks and Trees, Potatoes and Birds, Bottles Fire and Roads, Faces Houses Horses and Boats. "It's just a selection of work I've done in the last two years," Mombassa, aka Chris O'Doherty, says.

There are indeed trees - fat, twisting, anthropomorphised figures that threaten to rip their roots from the soil and roam across the land. Others feature in tranquil landscapes that the artist painted en plein air in the Flinders Ranges last year. More sinister, blasted, blackened trees also appear - along with bleached, burnt-out, skull-like car bodies - in scenes painted from photographs of the recent devastating Victorian bushfires.

Is it true to say this is an apocalyptic show for the New Zealand-born 58 year old? "All of my shows have an apocalyptic feel," he laughs, "because I always think the world's about to end. I've thought that since I was nine years old. I've been anxious ever since the Cuban Missile Crisis."

There are also pictures of Anzacs inspired by World War I cartoons of kangaroos, koalas and kiwis in uniform. Mombassa's battle-weary animals smoke cigarettes and look haunted. "They're all tired and alarmed, as you would be if you stood a one in three chance of being killed in the near future," he notes. A series of charcoal drawings depicting black Anzacs was created for a show raising money for a memorial to indigenous diggers. "I portrayed them with one eye, looking like aliens, because they were sort of aliens - they weren't citizens, but they volunteered for service, fought bravely and when they came back they still couldn't eat in restaurants or drink in hotels."

The show also features Mombassa's signature scenario: Biblical grotesques enacting violent rituals in a cartoon universe - the children of Goya, glimpsed through the prism of surf culture. Mombassa's work may still be synonymous with the Mambo clothing label, but says his involvement has "wound down".

"It's a common misconception that Mambo was my brand but I was always just a freelance artist along with 10 other contributors," he notes. "That understandably annoys the other artists." Nick Dent

Chris O'Doherty aka Reg Mombassa exhibits at Watters Gallery until 11 Jul.

Other Events at the Watters Gallery

• The Dreamers - Art Gallery of NSW