Scott Perkins – Berlin

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Scott Perkins – Berlin

  • Artist
    Scott Perkins
  • Dates
    4—28 Dec 2025
  • Gallery Location
    Berlin

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.

For further information, please email danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au.

The Stars Before Us All

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The Stars Before Us All

  • Artist
    Regina Wilson, Betty Chimney, Timo Hogan, Gaypalani Wanambi and more
  • Dates
    16—28 Oct 2025
  • Gallery Location
    Beyond

The Stars Before Us All is a landmark exhibition presented by Michael Reid Galleries (Sydney & Berlin), showcasing significant First Nations artworks from across Australia. Coinciding with the National Gallery of Victoria’s touring show The Stars We Do Not See at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., this project positions contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the heart of an international cultural dialogue.

The exhibition will feature approximately 20 artworks—paintings, photography, sculpture, weaving, and bark art—from communities including the Tiwi Islands, Arnhem Land, Far North Queensland, the Torres Strait, the Central Desert, and the Kimberley.

For those interested in acquiring, please contact tobymeagher@michaelreid.com.au

Painting Now 2025

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Painting Now 2025

  • Artist
  • Dates
    4—28 Dec 2025
  • Gallery Location
    Eora / Sydney

Our annual group show spotlights an exciting school of established artists whose practice expands the creative possibilities of art’s most storied medium and pushes it into optically charged, technically dazzling and conceptually daring terrain.

The success of so many Painting Now alumni reflects the program’s aim to identify established talents at a moment of creative breakthrough and present their work just as it ascends to a new level of collectability and acclaim. All paintings from this year’s show have arrived at the gallery and can be previewed and acquired by request.

For enquiries, please email curator and Michael Reid Beyond program manager Dean Phillips-Andersen dean@michaelreid.com.au

Louise Frith – New Works

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Louise Frith – New Works

  • Artist
    Louise Frith
  • Dates
    4—28 Nov 2025
  • Gallery Location
    Eora / Sydney

Building on the creative breakthrough of her widely celebrated solo show Understory – as well as her collaboration with fashion brand Nancy Bird, which saw her elegant flannel flowers and other painted botanicals transposed onto textiles.

 

Moving with painterly gusto between areas of intricate and tightly controlled detail and an overall mood of untamed, impressionistic abundance, Frith’s Tendrils and Tapestries series takes us deeper into the thickets of the bushland covering Eora/Sydney North Head. Sketching in the field before returning to her painting studio, Frith observes and translates the area’s dense botanical interplay, seasonal shifts and the filtered patterns of light and shade cast across the forest floor.

 

Frith’s paintings can be read less as conventional landscapes than as exuberant, impressionistic fields of pattern-like flora that envelop and transport the viewer. Each work is at once precisely rendered and yet almost verging on abstraction in its overlapping forms and immersive, optically charged, tapestry-like effects.

 

To discuss works by Louise Frith, please email colinesoria@michaelreid.com.au

Julz Beresford – New Works

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Julz Beresford – New Works

  • Artist
    Julz Beresford
  • Dates
    4—28 Nov 2025
  • Gallery Location
    Eora / Sydney

The Dyarubbin/Hawkesbury and the Snowy Monaro regions of New South Wales are indelibly etched in Julz Beresford‘s creative psyche and continue to propel her practice. Born in rural New South Wales, the artist reflects that being outdoors has always been at the heart of her existence.

An essential part of Beresford’s process is being present in the landscape, observing natural phenomena that then inform her paintings. Working en plein air, the artist collects gouache studies and drawings that later become the departure point of her studio-made paintings.

Beresford’s intent is for the audience to feel engaged with the energy of the landscapes she paints. Her works are both an impression of landscapes and an embodiment of how it actually feels to be there. Her paintings have a sense of intense energy. Painting alla prima with a vigorous and spirited application, the artist challenges herself to remain in the moment and ‘solve’ the painting as she goes.

Julz Beresford joins the Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin stable of artists following a successful exhibiting career at our Northern Beaches gallery.

For those interested in acquiring, please contact danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au

Michelle Gearin – New Works

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Michelle Gearin – New Works

  • Artist
    Michelle Gearin
  • Dates
    4—28 Sep 2025
  • Gallery Location
    Eora / Sydney

Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin are pleased to announce the representation of Michelle Gearin, an interdisciplinary artist whose work invites the viewer to transcend physical boundaries and experience a lucid dimension within her ethereal compositions.

Michelle Gearin’s art is inspired by diverse influences such as Shunga, Kama Sutra Sanskrit miniature paintings, and the Symbolist movement of the 19th century. However, her work is not limited to these influences, as her personal narratives and experiences also shape her unique perspective on the world.

Growing up in rural New South Wales and receiving an early diagnosis of Autism, Michelle developed a profound connection to nature and a heightened perception of the nuances of light and movement in her environment. This connection is reflected in her work, which captures the delicate interplay of colour, light, and movement with remarkable insight.

Using oils and watercolours, Michelle creates hybrid mythological creatures that exude a powerful energy. These beings radiate beams of colour from their eyes or genitals during moments of intimacy, representing a yearning for human connection in its purest form.

Michelle Gearin’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including the ‘Female Drivers’ exhibition at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery in 2022. Her work, Prism, consisting of 49 circular panels, was acquired for the gallery’s collection. Michelle has also exhibited alongside Alex Seton at The Lock-Up in Newcastle, where her multimedia work, Double Rainbow, immersed the viewer in the science of optics and the power of the human eye.

For those interested in acquiring, please contact dean@michaelreid.com.au.

The Act of Putting It Back Together

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The Act of Putting It Back Together

  • Artist
    Sid Pattni
  • Dates
    31 Jul—30 Aug 2025
  • Gallery Location
    Eora / Sydney

This month, Michael Reid Sydney will present our first solo exhibition from Naarm/Melbourne-based Indian-Australian contemporary painter Sid Pattni, who recently joined our stable of represented artists and is currently a finalist in the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

“I’m interested in how aesthetics shaped under empire can be reclaimed and reconfigured to tell new stories about migration, memory, and identity,” says the London-born, Kenya-raised artist, speaking with Belle magazine in an extensive profile published in its latest issue. “Painting became a way to process the dissonance I felt navigating multiple cultural identities. I return to themes of hybridity, belonging and erasure, referencing historical visual formats not as homage, but as a means of critique and reimagining.”

Works from Pattni’s forthcoming series – which shares its title, The Act of Putting it Back Together, with his Archibald-shortlisted self-portrait – are now available to preview and acquire by request.

To receive a preview catalogue and secure an acquisition prior to the show’s opening, please email danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au

After Turner

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After Turner

  • Artist
    Luke Shadbolt
  • Dates
    4—29 Aug 2025
  • Gallery Location
    Berlin

Michael Reid Berlin is delighted to announce a luminous new solo exhibition by acclaimed contemporary photographer Luke Shadbolt, a star in our stable of represented artists, who returns to the German capital this August.

Titled After Turner, this bold, chromatic new suite of photographs marks a striking evolution in Shadbolt’s practice, inspired by the radical romanticism of J.M.W. Turner.

Photographed over a single late-summer evening, After Turner reflects Shadbolt’s deep fascination with natural phenomena, focusing his lens on a fleeting and fiery interplay of light, water and atmosphere. Physically and conceptually immersed in his subject, the artist employed slow-shutter techniques within an underwater housing to capture images that blur the line between photography and painting.

“In this series, I’ve tried to accentuate the painterly capabilities of the photographic medium,” says Shadbolt, who cites Turner’s experimental brilliance – particularly his vivid, emotive colour – as a key influence.

Working in dialogue with Goethe’s colour theory and Turner’s expressive legacy, After Turner is at once homage and innovation – a contemporary meditation on light, violence, transcendence and the sublime.

Preview catalogues and early acquisitions are now available by request. Please email: colinesoria@michaelreid.com.au

Onlookers

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Onlookers

  • Artist
    Chelsea Gustafsson
  • Dates
    30 Jun—25 Jul 2025
  • Gallery Location
    Berlin

One of the bright stars in Michael Reid Murrurundi’s stable of exhibiting artists, Chelsea Gustafsson is making her European debut with a solo exhibition of small-scale, high-impact paintings at Michael Reid Berlin.

“I’m drawn to still life and using objects to tell a story,” says the artist, whose latest series builds on the tremendous creative breakthrough and critical success of her most recent Murrurundi show. “I find objects are perfect as a representational tool and my brain has a relentless tendency to contemplate all the big and little things going on in the world.”
Delighting in the alchemy of objects staged in sculptural arrangements, Gustafsson’s paintings toy with perceptions of scale, perspective and framing, layering pictures within pictures with striking trompe l’oeil effects. There is a nesting-doll quality to these cinematic scenes as she once again casts an array of iconic chairs and salvaged seating as her work’s stars.
But here, the pictorial layering is dialled up to an even more dynamic degree. Discarded packaging and fragmentary pictures are unboxed and seemingly collaged in space, drawing the viewer into endlessly fascinating, illusory worlds in miniature.
To discuss works from this exhibition please contact colinesoria@michaelreid.com.au

Artist Profile – Scott Perkins

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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.

How did you first become interested in photography and when did you begin to pursue the practice professionally?

It had an unlikely incubation. The old adage that it takes 10,000 shots – I feel that applies to me. Years, indeed decades, of observing, of carving out discretionary moments to see inspiring photography, layering down my appreciation of the medium. And then some catalysts – my wife and a few bolshy photographer friends led to a Leica birthday present and being told to jump out of the observer nest into the exposed environment of actually trying to create something distinctive. The Leica global community helped shape the technical aspects, through their Academy programs, which I attended on several occasions. I should also recognise the formative influence of a gallerist whose keen eye gave me the confidence to press ahead.

What were some of your early creative influences, and how have they continued to inform your photography practice?

I see photography drawing inspiration from and pushing the boundaries of all the other disciplines. The development of more abstract forms and innovative treatments of light and shadow has contributed to our appreciation of minimalism and sculpture. My inspirations are both historic and contemporary. The early experimentation of Edward Steichen’s images which introduced abstraction to what was only a representational medium at the time, the genre creating work of Bern and Hilla Becher which revealed the hidden beauty in hard industry, the mastery of light in Ansel Adams epic American landscapes, the maestro, Hiroshi Sugimoto’s captivating reductions and abstractions, through to Andreas Gursky’s awesome contemporary dramas.

What have been some of the highlights of your photography career to date? 

My first encounter with Michael Reid personally was memorable. It was a Willy Loman moment – tubes in hand, a bag with a lightbox, the generous nudge afforded by Warren Macris, a rainy day, nervousness, fogged glasses and a belief that you miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take. That Michael even agreed to meet this unknown was astonishing – and, even more so, after a laboured unfurling of a few photographs, to see the look of surprise on his face and then the faces of the MR team who gathered around and the instantaneous reaction of “there is something here” was a thrilling moment.

Could you tell us a bit about your collaborations with Warren Macris at High Res Digital?

Warren is the high priest of printing in Australia and so, of course, that was the aspirational place to go. Another cold call with an equally unexpected and generous reception. I never anticipated he would so willingly embark on the technical journey to help create an entirely new genre of lighboxes – and retain the sense of adventure despite the immense technical challenges of printing transparencies with such unforgiving gradients and tones. At times, as we jointly reject works with microscopic imperfections, I’m sure he rues that day. But he, along with a small community of framers – with special mention to Tugi at Graphic Art Mount – fabricators and other printers, have been true partners.

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!

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