Lara Merrett’s vivid abstraction shows at Jan Murphy Gallery
Like a child painting a piece of paper, folding it in half and pressing firmly to create unknown shapes and swatches of meshed colour, Lara Merrett’s artworks, too, are experimental – the final product of intuition and flair.
Showing at Fortitude Valley’s Jan Murphy Gallery this month is Lara Merrett’s exhibition made of everything – a collection of 11 new abstract works. In Lara’s vibrant canvases, organic arrangements of colour traverse contraries of chaos and order, and depth and opacity, with her works never pre-planned, their personalities developing through time and her connection with the work.
First inspired to pursue art while travelling to New York at the ripe age of 16, Lara discovered the power of paint amongst the artworks at MOMA, the Guggenheim, the Whitney and the Met. She went on to study painting at Sydney’s College of Fine Art and undertaking study trips to Spain and New York. In 2001, Lara won a scholarship to complete a residency in India, where she soaked up the vibrancy of culture, which has continued to impress on her art practice to date.
Water-based inks, acrylics, vinyls and metallics fuse in heavy layering of colour upon her vivid canvases, causing the eye to wander and savour every intricate hue change, shape and density. In her first visit to Brisbane, Lara will also host an artist talk this Thursday October 11 at 6:00 pm at the gallery.
@ Jan Murphy Gallery, October 9 to November 3
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