Lara Merrett’s latest solo show is titled Flip side. This naturally begs the question, flipside of what? When I meet the artist in her studio in Sydney’s inner west, she is also working on High Stakes, a project commissioned by the University of Queensland Art Museum, which will involve 100 volunteers working on 60 massive canvases for a site-specific installation. Indicating the smaller ink-stained paintings she’s working on as we speak, Merrett says: “And this is the flipside of that. Everything is based in the studio. It feels very personal, very intimate.”
Colour is an ongoing preoccupation for Merrett and the paintings for Flip side are steeped in it. Inky translucent pools and watery washes of acrylic colour infuse her canvases. For Merrett the use of colour is both instinctive and experiential. Although she doesn’t have true synaesthesia, working with colour triggers unexpected thoughts and memories. “I suppose colour is an experience for me, it’s not just a technical part of painting,” she says. “I like the idea that a colour might relate to an experience. And you may not fully grasp what that experience was, but it’s definitely something that has made you who you are.
While working, Merrett tries not to overthink her colour choices. She enjoys letting go. “I know I have a strong relationship with colour,” the artist says, “and I trust that. So then I lose a bit of control; I have trust in the process and what it will lead to.” Which makes perfect sense – after all, the flipside of rationality is intuition.
Flip side
Lara Merrett
Jan Murphy Gallery
7 May – 25 May
Kamilaroi/Bigambul artist Archie Moore has won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the Venice Biennale for his monumental work, kith and kin. It marks the first time Australia has won the award in the event’s 130-year history.
Endlessly inventive, the work of Hong Kong-born, Melbourne-based artist Scotty So spans photography, painting, video work, and drag performance. With a dual exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, So talks about pageantry, begonias and queens.
Kokatha and Nukunu artist Yhonnie Scarce has earned critical acclaim for her research in nuclear testing and its ongoing impact on First Nations communities. With a survey at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Scarce speaks to her blown glass forms.
In her latest exhibition at Flinders Lane Gallery, Kathrin Longhurst highlights the resilience of women through paintings that subvert the traditional male gaze, and instead aim to empower.
CREATION is a new religion by artist Deborah Kelly, radically rethinking how we collectively come together. Having engaged with communities nation-wide, inviting audiences to dance, sing, listen and perform together, Kelly is now taking CREATION to regional Victoria. Curator Ineke Dane talks with Kelly about why she wanted to start a new religion, and where it will go in the future.
In the most significant exhibition of his career to date at Pinnacles Gallery, Danish Quapoor explores the contradictory emotions of grief while navigating complex shifts in identity and belonging.
