Eora/Sydney-based contemporary photographer Scott Perkins distils the natural world into minimalist poetry, producing ultra-refined, abstracted landscapes steeped in moody atmospheres. Shot in remote corners of Australia, New Zealand, Europe and beyond, his brooding forests and sweeping seascapes are pared back to elemental forms: softly gradated horizons, starkly silhouetted escarpments and silvery skies whose hazy, granular shimmer glints like celestial dust. Housed in bespoke, architecturally formed timber frames and softly glowing light boxes, each portal-like piece operates as much like sculpture as photography, drawing the viewer into meditative, ambiguous realms.

On the eve of our announcement of Perkins’s formal representation by Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin – and ahead of his touring solo show Uncertain Truths at Michael Reid Southern Highlands – we sat down with the artist to discuss the ideas and techniques that propel his practice. The conversation unfolded at High Res Digital, where Perkins was working alongside Australia’s pre-eminent fine-art printing specialist, Warren Macris, perfecting two new works that will appear exclusively in the Berrima iteration of Uncertain Truths, expanding on the series that debuted at Michael Reid Sydney in April 2025.

Read our interview with Scott Perkins below, and visit Michael Reid Southern Highlands – in person or online – to experience Uncertain Truths. For further information, please email danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au.

What was the starting point for your 2025 series, Uncertain Truths, and how did it evolve through the production process?

I am always working remotely. Out early, looking for light and shadow. In a boat at dawn, up a hill in a storm, walking in nature at dusk. Absence focuses the mind on what can be seen beyond the superficial, even if it’s wonderful. I suppose I’m looking to simplify and reduce and, in the process, expose some uncertainty. Hence “Uncertain Truths”. Each image can be understood at a simple level as landscape abstraction – the essential and timeless truth of what is factually there. But none are what they seem. Nor are they universally explainable. I hope every viewer has their own read. The best will tell a story that will sustain their engagement.

What were some of the experiences that informed the work?

There are works in this series shot in remote locations off the coast of Italy, Tasmania, the Kimberleys, and New Zealand. And yet none are overtly identifiable. I like that. Nature is a great leveller.

How do you view the series as a continuation of your previous work and perhaps as a point of departure?

The photographs are clearly family members. The large framed lightboxes intensify the photographic experience, while one work ventures into a more painterly approach. The black lightboxes fuse sculpture and photography – they are illuminated voids. And then there is a new format – small, deep-framed, wooden lightboxes – portals. They engage the viewer in a way that invites exploration. Two use Awagami paper that creates a very different experience, redolent of memories expressed through landscape.

What were some of the technical challenges in creating the works in this series, and how were you able to resolve them?

The lightboxes are technically challenging, requiring a degree of engineering and image quality that tests the marvellous crew at High Res Digital Printing. The new portals are finely milled by the craftspeople at Graphic Art Mount from specific timbers resistant to movement but capable of such treatment. And again, I use metallic papers that are beautifully printed by Pixel Perfect.

Could you tell us about some of your favourite works from Uncertain Truths? Is there a narrative thread running through the series?

You can’t choose between your children! I hope every work sustains the viewers’ engagement. I hope there is a vast array of different interpretations, drawing upon each viewer’s experiences. I hope they look marvellous on the wall.

Could you tell us about the two new works you have completed for your presentation of Uncertain Truths at Michael Reid Southern Highlands? How do they build on your series?

It was fascinating watching people engage with the portals and the reaction to the works on Awagami paper. So we have taken that and run with it, introducing new works in black portals on Awagami. And we have opened up a new, but connected, series – venturing into the abstract landscapes and taking the viewer deep into the embedded forests and trees. I’ve been looking for a different way to express what lurks in the forest. It’s a genre done well by many people. What I’m pleased with is how the confluence of light boxes, the deep portals and Awagami create a new way of experiencing these scenes.

What other projects are you looking forward to working on in the coming year?

More of the same but different. This year camera equipment is being lugged into far fetched seascapes, a remote archipelago and deep into more forests. More to follow!

Kathy Liu is an Eora/Sydney-based contemporary artist whose intuitive approach to abstract painting invites an enchanting, ethereal and entirely singular mix of fluid and figurative painterly forms. Casting the canvas as a conduit for her adventures through imaginative worlds, Liu’s open-ended process embraces serendipitous possibilities as pools of abstract colour begin to coalesce and enigmatic, inchoate figures emerge through diaphanous wafts of colour. Suggesting hazy memories, nocturnal musings or half-remembered dreams, the resulting paintings pulse with poeticism, emotion, a sense of magic and effervescent movement.

After completing her fine arts studies at the National Art School, Liu captured the attention of our curatorial team as a breakout star among the finalists of the 2023 National Emerging Art Prize and was invited to presented her work in successful group and solo shows at Michael Murrurundi. The artist was selected for the 2024 edition of Michael Reid’s annual Painting Now survey show at our flagship Eora/Sydney gallery before making her solo debut at the gallery in April 2025 with her widely celebrated series If you wait for long.

“Her work’s gossamer quality sees fragmentary images on the cusp of emerging or just fading away – an ambiguity that rhymes with Liu’s fluid, freeform approach and the happy accidents of her abstract practice,” noted an expansive Belle magazine profile published alongside the opening of Painting Now. Liu will present a new body of work at Sydney Contemporary 2025 and is currently working on a solo exhibition slated for early 2026. On the eve of our announcement of her representation by Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin, we visited the artist’s studio to discuss her brilliant career to date and the ideas and influences that inform her current painting practice.

Read our interview with Kathy Liu below. To receive early previews and priority access to her forthcoming series, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

What led you to pursue painting as a career?

When I first came to Australia as an international student, I studied in an area quite different from art. But after working in an office environment for a few years, I felt I was moving further away from what I truly loved. There came a point when I could no longer bear it, so I changed my career completely. I went to the National Art School to complete my fine art degree. I finally felt like I was at home and I knew that practising art was definitely where I belonged.

What have been some of your favourite career experiences?

I will say each painting has some breakthrough moments, which I really enjoy, and that also gives me motivation to keep painting. Five years of studying at the National Art School was my life-changing experience, where I met artists, philosophers, poets and makers. I am pleased I graduated from NAS with the COSO Architecture and Landscape in Painting prize. Since then, I have also been selected for various art prizes, but being a finalist at the National Emerging Art Prize in 2023 was especially a turning point for me. It provided me with opportunities to collaborate with the Michael Reid Galleries.

What are some of the ideas and experiences that have informed your more recent work?

I have always loved ancient frescoes, such as the Pompeii wall paintings. I am also very interested in mythologies and physics (the concept of time and entropy, et cetera). While I do not consciously try to represent them in my art, I think they do influence my aesthetic and process and are all potential inspirations for me.

How would you describe your approach to abstraction?

I start my paintings abstractly, thinking of surface, composition, colour, et cetera. I try not to decide on a fixed subject at an early stage. These abstract elements work to connect with a feeling or bring out a blurry impression, which is quite personal. There’s an undercurrent behind these abstract elements, so the painting suggests a potential narrative. It’s as if I’m presenting a question without a fixed answer, but I am happy without knowing the answer. I love colours and tones and how they work together to explain a pictorial space. I do not use paint heavily; rather, a lot of the time, I deduct from the painted surface. The original surface of linen or cotton itself can be part of the painting, too.

How has your work’s expansion in scale influenced your approach?

Painting on a larger scale requires whole-body movement, which allows for a more immersive art-making process. With a large-scale painting, I can spend more effort on building the surface and also have room for more details to develop. I don’t often work on a small study first and then enlarge it to a large scale, but instead go straight to the big canvases. I make lots of mistakes, correct them, redo, destroy, and redo again, all on the same painting. The paintings become a record of the whole process over a period of time. It shows my thinking, struggle and breakthrough all together.

How do you feel your painting practice is evolving with the series you’re currently working on?

I feel more freedom with how to apply or deduct paints, and also more focused on the surface and how pictorial space is developing. With the expansion in scale, I’m trying to create a more immersive experience for the viewers. I am looking forward to participating in this year’s Sydney Contemporary Michael Reid group exhibition and my solo exhibition at the beginning of next year.

Photographs by Jonathan Cohen.