In February, Tamara Dean’s magnificent entanglements of human and natural worlds will reach a wild crescendo with her operatic new series of lushly romantic, hyper-floral photographs, The Flower Duet – a landmark body of work in which lithe figures plunge through prismatic thresholds in a dazzling pas de deux with camellias, roses and other blooms.

While Dean’s fecund fantasias might at first appear like digitally conjured dreamscapes, they are, in fact, an extraordinary feat of practical effects, with the artist immersing and lensing her subjects in actual gardens and elaborately constructed underwater sets.

Works from The Flower Duet by Tamara Dean can now be previewed and acquired by request. Please contact danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au

The next major exhibition of Vicki Yatjiki Cullinan will open in February at Michael Reid Sydney. Cullinan, who lives and works in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytatjara Lands (APY Lands) will dazzle audiences with her vibrant paintings that are inspired by memories of travelling on foot across APY Lands with her family.

To receive further information about works of art exhibiting in this exhibition, please contact danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au

In January, Michael Reid Sydney will exhibit 20 significant Australian photographs – across two folios of ten masterworks each – bringing together iconic artworks by Australia’s most celebrated 20th-century photographers, spanning six decades of cultural and artistic evolution.

These two master suites of ten photographs each capture the nation’s diverse creative vision and much of our core photographic history. From Olive Cotton’s elegant Teacup Ballet to Mervyn Bishop’s powerful portrayal of Indigenous land rights and Greg Weight’s portrait of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, these images reflect Australia’s ever-changing social and environmental narrative.

Showcasing masterful storytelling and enduring legacies, the two folios are cornerstones of Australian photography.

For further information about this exhibition please contact colinesoria@michaelreid.com.au

Michael Reid Sydney will commence the calendar year with a presentation of Trent Parke’s Species series. Species made its Australian debut with a selection of photographs at Sydney Contemporary 2024. In January, we will present a more comprehensive collection draw from this technically astounding photographic series.

Photographs from Species have already garnered international acclaim after being shown at Milan Design Week in a touring exhibition specially commissioned by Magnum Photos and Veuve Clicquot. A centrepiece of the series was selected for Australia’s most prestigious photo-based media award, the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize.

Captured through an extraordinary feat of endurance and technical wizardry, Species is a thrilling synthesis of Parke’s exceptional skill and aesthetic sensibilities. “Shooting directly into the sun, with what could be considered a telescope, is a challenge in itself,” says the artist, who lensed his subjects from a distance of 700 metres. “It was 1/2000th of a second, but three months in the making.”

Parke sees Species as a meeting of two “symbols of universal energy” – the sun and the ocean melting together in a sumptuous pool of colour.

Photographs from this exhibition can be viewed at Michael Reid Sydney by appointment from Monday, 16 December. To arrange a viewing, please email danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au

This month, Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin will present the latest work by leading Australian contemporary artist Catherine Nelson, who brilliantly recasts digital tools as a paintbrush for conjuring wildly immersive, impossible landscapes.

“From her studio in France, Nelson’s meditation on the Australian landscape carries the weight of distance, nostalgic romanticism, and the clarity of perspective that such remove can provide,” notes art adviser and writer Sarah Hetherington in the catalogue essay accompanying Nelson’s extraordinary new pair of works, Riverbound I and II.

Each image is a painstaking, labour-intensive digital construction, where every element is composed of dozens of photographs, creating what Nelson refers to as “distortion on distortion” or a type of hyper-collaging. Nelson’s intention is to capture “a more honest image that reflects my experience and emotional response to this staggeringly beautiful and unique part of the world.” Further, Riverbound marks a significant departure from Nelson’s macro/micro spherical previous series of works. Now the viewer is positioned within the scene rather than observing from afar.

Riverbound I and II reject the traditional single-point perspective of photography and are particularly striking in their temporal and spatial complexity. Instead, the images offer something more akin to the way memory works – an immersive, multi-layered experience. The tilted plane of the river becomes a mirror, the space between the sky and its reflection in the water is collapsed. Nelson describes this as “an absence of separation,” a unity that also speaks to an ecological interconnectedness.

For further information please email dean@michaelreid.com.au.