Michelle Gearin – New Works

This September, Michael Reid Sydney will present our second solo exhibition from Mulubinba/Newcastle-based interdisciplinary artist Michelle Gearin since she joined our stable of represented artists in early 2023. Returning to the gallery for the first time in more than two years, Gearin will present a sequence of large-scale paintings that mark an exciting new chapter in her evolving practice.

Gearin’s work invites the viewer to move beyond the material world into a lucid, otherworldly dimension. Her distinctive visual language draws from a deeply personal lexicon of references: from Shunga and Sanskrit Kama Sutra miniatures to 19th-century Symbolism. These influences converge with autobiography – fragments of memory, desire and transformation – resulting in paintings that are both intimate and elemental, charged with a kind of noirish eroticism, shapeshifting magic and mythic ambiguity.

Since her widely acclaimed 2023 solo exhibition Lux Aeterna, Gearin has exhibited extensively in institutional group shows, including Old Stories, New Magic at Maitland Regional Art Gallery, where her spellbinding, wall-sized installation was anchored by her most ambitious work to date: Metamorphosis. Her work has since been acquired by the Art Gallery of Ballarat for its permanent collection, underscoring the growing momentum surrounding her practice and its growing resonance with both private collectors and public institutions.

Before joining Michael Reid, Gearin’s work was featured in several notable exhibitions, including Female Drivers (Maitland Regional Art Gallery, 2022), where her multi-panel work Prism – comprising 49 circular paintings – was acquired by the gallery. That same year, she exhibited alongside Alex Seton at The Lock-Up in Newcastle, presenting the multimedia installation Double Rainbow, which explored the science of optics and the perceptual mystery of the human eye.

To request a preview and gain priority access to works from Michelle Gearin’s forthcoming solo exhibition, please contact dean@michaelreid.com.au.