Celebrated Meanjin/Brisbane-based contemporary painter and master of the still life John Honeywill returns to Michael Reid Sydney in August for his first solo exhibition in more than two years. Brought to life with meticulous precision and masterly control of light and mood, Honeywill’s paintings set everyday objects within deceptively simple compositions that appear quietly radiant and seemingly lit from within.

His acclaimed practice is propelled by a curious, almost ineffable affinity for the objects of his gaze – unsentimental yet emotionally resonant subjects that draw the eye with the quiet authority of their presence. From sugary sweets to elegant vessels enclosing fruit or delicately unfolding flowers, these still-life elements exude a serene stillness and subtle alchemy as they coalesce and converse in graceful, mesmerising arrangements.

By suspending these objects against ambiguous, softly luminescent planes – at times subtly reflective, at others gauze-like and atmospheric – and rendering them with astonishing, ultra-precise detail, Honeywill heightens their sense of poise and intimacy. His paintings stand as a paean to the interplay between an object’s presence and the artist’s perception – the organising idea behind his 2023 monograph, Presence and Perception.

To sign up for first access to the artist’s forthcoming series, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au

Naarm/Melbourne-based artist and 2025 Archibald Prize finalist Sid Pattni will follow up a banner year with a new succession of projects across the Michael Reid network and beyond – commencing in April with his first large-scale solo exhibition staged across our flagship ground-floor gallery, followed by his Michael Reid Berlin debut.

Born in London and raised in Kenya before moving to Melbourne via Boorloo/Perth, the Indian-Australian artist first approached painting as a way of processing the dissonance of navigating multiple cultural identities. Arriving at an entirely original painterly language, Pattni draws on visual traditions codified and co-opted under empire – from Mughal miniature painting and Indian textiles to British botanical drawings and 19th-century Company Paintings – recasting their compositional logic as symbols of containment and their intricate embellishment as a site of critique.

In his hands, colonial portraiture becomes a lens for exploring diasporic identity and the external projections through which selfhood is constructed. A breakout star of the 2023 National Emerging Art Prize, Pattni joined the Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin stable in the same week he was announced as an Archibald finalist for his self-portrait subtitled The Act of Putting It Back Together, which later lent its name to his tremendously successful Michael Reid Sydney debut.

“Pattni invites us to examine the inheritances that exist within the subconscious of our collective and individual psyche,” writes Louise Martin-Chew in an eight-page Vault magazine cover story. “His criticality sits within an aesthetic that is richly decorated, beautiful and seductive, to ‘symbolise how cultural artefacts were appropriated and recontextualised during empire, and how these reinterpretations continue to influence diasporic self-perception. What feels new … is a deeper emotional intensity.”

To preview and acquire works from Sid Pattni’s forthcoming Eora/Sydney and Berlin exhibitions, please email danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au

In February, Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin will present our first full-scale solo exhibition from Yankunytjatjara artist Raylene Walatinna. A major force within the dynamic school of First Nations painters at Iwantja Arts in the rocky desert country of Indulkana on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, Walatinna is the daughter and frequent collaborator of acclaimed artist Betty Chimney, as well as an exceptional talent in her own right.

The mother–daughter duo often works together on collaborative paintings, continuing the custom of older women passing on their knowledge of Tjukurpa (cultural stories) and Ngura (Country) to younger generations. As a solo artist, Walatinna produces only a limited volume of work, making her forthcoming exhibition – her most ambitious project to date – a truly significant occasion.

Revealing the influence of her trailblazing mother – a three-time Wynne Prize finalist and one of the most highly regarded artists represented by the gallery – Walatinna’s work channels the rich tones and elemental rhythms of the desert in a celebration of her family’s enduring connection to Country and Yankunytjatjara cultural history.

Her forthcoming solo exhibition follows a star turn in Heirloom, our Murrurundi gallery’s most recent collaborative exhibition with Country Style magazine, as well as a celebrated showing alongside several of her Iwantja Arts peers in the group exhibition Ngura pilunpa – Peaceful Country at Michael Reid Southern Highlands. “My mum has always been my closest friend. I learnt how to paint from her – she is a very good teacher. Over time, I’ve developed my own way of working too,” says Walatinna in a profile published in Country Style’s 2025 Art Issue alongside the opening of Heirloom. “My paintings are different to my mum’s – even though we are often painting the same Country. Our shapes usually connect in different ways, and we have different ideas on how to use colour.”

Both artists begin with the Tjukitji (soakage) and the Iwantja Creek, sites of profound importance to Yankunytjatjara people. “It is a landscape that’s deeply embedded in their family history,” writes Hannah James in Country Style. “Raylene recalls travelling as a child while her father worked as a stockman at various cattle stations.”

Works from Raylene Walatinna’s forthcoming presentation are now available to preview digitally and in person by request. To receive a preview catalogue, book a private viewing at Michael Reid Sydney or register early acquisition interest, please email danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au