Showing in January at Michael Reid Sydney is a delightful collection of new handmade ceramics by Brisbane based artist, Steph Woods. Rounding out our summertime schedule of new work by emerging artist’s.

Steph Woods’ meticulously crafted, hand built vessels are curvaceous, textured and visually daring, all embellished with striking matt glaze.

Our Sydney Gallery installation is on view until January 28th. Those interested in viewing these superb works are encouraged to visit.

On the evening of Thursday 19th January 2023 Michael Reid Sydney will host a combined opening reception for our Steph Woods exhibition, Ben Waters exhibition and JAMOO pop up store. This event will take place from 6pm to 8pm at 109 Shepherd Street, Chippendale NSW 2008. Phone (02) 8353 3500 for more information, or email danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au

Our Summer exhibition program commences with Shared Places, Ben Waters‘ first exhibition at Michael Reid Sydney, which will open from January 12th 2023.

In this exhibition, Ben Waters’ graphic paintings of the Barrenjoey Headlands and Pittwater surrounds have been marvellously up-scaled and are among the largest examples of the artist’s work to date. Bright, warm and quintessentially Australian, paintings from this exhibition offer a considered introduction the the artist’s thoughtful treatment of the painted landscape.

On the evening of Thursday 19th January 2023 Michael Reid Sydney will host a combined opening reception for our Steph Woods exhibition, Ben Waters exhibition and JAMOO pop up store. This event will take place from 6pm to 8pm at 109 Shepherd Street, Chippendale NSW 2008. Phone (02) 8353 3500 for more information, or email danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au

Narelle Autio returns to her renowned cinematic style in this 2020 body of work, capturing the dark depths of the sea and the moments of magic concealed by its murky waters.

This body of work is very personal to the artist, tracing its beginning to an idea born in motherhood, a time the Autio calls immersive and all consuming much like the ocean. As a mother of young teenagers, Autio feels she is coming up for air yet is also suspended in her own new beginnings.

These underwater works, which were photographed under many of South Australia’s jetties, are a metaphor for life and its incessant move towards change, yet they are also capturing the in between moments of the changelings, the place in between. These unstaged works suspend moments of swimmers jumping off the jetty that Narelle is submerged under. In the midst of a magical episode, their bodies are incapsulated in bubbles and motion. As the bubbles dissipate, the swimmer is briefly revealed as a strange figure… they could be fairies or even something more sinister.

Penumbra was Australian photographer Scott Perkins’ first exhibition at Michael Reid Sydney, debuting the artist’s finely distilled employment of abstract photography. Penumbra followed a series of successful exhibitions in New Zealand and was the first opportunity for Australian collectors to engage with Perkins’ reanimated treatment of the photographic craft.

Presented in three distinct modes, Scott Perkins’ images of unidentified landscapes have been captured in state of balance, occupying a space between light and dark. Brooding, atmospheric and technically imposing, Scott Perkins’ images thread a trio of presentation methods that add a dynamic viewing experience to each work of art. 

In this exhibition, viewers were treated to impeccably presented lightbox photographs of bespoke design that transform their surrounding spaces. The artist’s use of Hanhnemule metallic paper add a complementary lustre to the surface of his mysterious still photograph images.

Following a two year hiatus, Sydney Contemporary returned in 2022 and it was Tamara Dean who represented Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin.

Palace of Dreams, a project over twelve months in the making, made it’s worldwide debut at the art fair, seeing an audience of over 150,000 people across five days. In this series, Dean disorientates her subjects using a purpose built underwater studio. With Palace of Dreams Tamara Dean successfully choreographs a dreamlike world, illustrated across eight gravity defying subjects.

John Honeywill’s paintings are often described as realist. He removes objects from their context and presents them to us isolated, commanding in their silence. Their intriguing qualities come not from their suggested narrative, but of the stark sense of light, colour and luminosity they convey. Stripped of all story-telling levers, Honeywill offers his viewers what might be understood as a pure distillation of presence. 

Opening on Thursday 25th of August, John Honeywill’s Michael Reid Sydney exhibition assembled twenty-six new paintings.

Showing in the upstairs gallery at Michael Reid Sydney, Flowers gathered eight new paintings by Kaspar Kägi; each demonstrating the rising artist’s original and refreshing sensibility. Kägi’s graphic, yet painterly visual language wedded perfectly with his botanical images.

Deme ngagurr apirri nimbi kunikuni yedityerrmusye werrme wurity wadi kanbi yawul. Wani pek ngugnuni syaw palamundi adawayiir wuyse warrgadi walipan. Awapurrpurrk ngagurr kana ngarimbirr fi me tyat deme ngangi nginin deme apirri nimbi. Awa mabud filmi yedi asa purrpurrk werrme wurity.

Our hands long ago; old people used to make painting, bark painting, fish net, clapping sticks, headbands, dillybags; we teach our younger generations what our old people taught us. Many hands we join as one community.

– Regina Pilawuk Wilson

Ever since Regina Pilawuk Wilson’s golden yellow Syaw (fishnet) won the General Painting Award at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 2003, her elegantly structured paintings have quietly but unequivocally fixed her name on the contemporary art map.

Regina Pilawuk Wilson is now Australia’s most senior contemporary female Aboriginal artist, and is one at the height of her creative powers. Wilson is the matriarch of her community and is a softly spoken, major force in the Australian art world today. Her relevance and the power of her work only continue to grow; influence that is affirmed by the artist’s participation in two major art museum exhibitions in the next 12 months.

Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin is honoured to work with Regina Wilson and her Community, which has for two decades produced significant and bright creative outcomes. Deme Ngayi Kinyi was Regina Pilawuk Wilson’s largest solo exhibition with Michael Reid Sydney, and is the first to exhibit on our Chippendale gallery premises.