Mai Nguyễn-Long is an artist, academic and storyteller whose mixed heritage informs the tapestry of narratives that live through her work. Born in Tasmania to a Vietnamese father and Australian mother, Nguyễn-Long’s formative years were spent living in Papua New Guinea as well as the Philippines. As an adult, Mai Nguyễn-Long has lived in Australia and China, however, it was her pilgrimage to Vietnam that has had the most profound influence on the aesthetic and theoretical direction of her art.

Since the early 2000’s, Nguyễn-Long’s practice has seen many iterations, consistent in narrative but materially diverse. Her work endeavours to crystallise her own identity, interrogating her migrations and acknowledging what was left behind. In 2017 Nguyễn-Long made her first Vomit Girl from clay, a moment that would direct the next six years of her art and education.

The story of Vomit Girl is one of family history and belonging, and is the subject of her PhD, recently acquired from the University of Wollongong. Vomit Girl is a symbol of what has been erased and speaks broadly to diasporic trauma following the atrocities of the Vietnam War. Through her Vomit Girl installations, Mai Nguyễn-Long collides cultural artefacts and personal histories, borrowing from Vietnamese rural aesthetics known as mộc mạc. Mai Nguyễn-Long’s armies of Vomit Girl sculptures have make-believe conversations and are artistic devices that attempt to mend what feels irreparably broken.

In recent years Mai Nguyễn-Long’s articulation through clay has seen her profile consistently rise within Australian art circles. In 2022 her work exhibited at the 12th Berlin Biennale, and she now joins Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin as a represented artist. Vomit Girl Stories is Nguyen-Long’s first exhibition with the Gallery, and will show in Sydney from August 3 – September 2, 2023.

The success of Mai Nguyễn-Long’s practice is firmly attributed to her universal vision, which reconciles personal loss whilst supplying her audience with agency to ponder what may be missing for themselves.

Works in this exhibition are now available to acquire. To begin a conversation please be in touch with danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au

Australian photographer Tamara Dean presents her newest exhibition of photographs, The Suspended Moment at Michael Reid Sydney, which furthers her employment of a purpose-built underwater studio. In this remarkably magic new series, Dean creates sumptuous still life compositions that contradict their genre, presenting animated scenes that appear to defy gravity.

Pulling from the rich symbolism found in 17^th century Dutch Still life painting, Tamara Dean creates vignettes of distinct palettes, through which her carefully selected objects appear to perform. Aside from one delicately placed hand in Love and Desire, Dean allows her objects to narrate our story. By removing the figures that typically populate her photographs, Tamara Dean raises existential questions in beautifully tense ways.

The symbolism found in The Suspended Moment alludes to debates concerning the climate emergency as well as the omnipresent threat of increasing natural disasters. The gentle buoyancy of Tamara Dean’s fruit, fabrics, and flowers, imitate an increasing loss of control. The Suspended Moment brings a touch of poetry to an alarming environmental debate, and is one that is expertly directed by Dean.

For assistance with an acquisition from this exhibition, please contact dean@michaelreid.com.au

Canadian painter Gavin Lynch makes his Australian exhibition debut at Michael Reid Sydney in presenting a panoramic installation of eight individual landscape paintings. Arborarium is now showing in our second floor gallery, and is a wonderful opportunity for Australian collectors to access the artist’s work locally.

Gavin Lynch is an artist in full control of his creative vision, whose gentle disruption of the landscape genre observes the role of painting in a digitally saturated world. Lynch’s articulation of North American landscapes is refreshingly original, and is a visual language achieved through a series of protracted studio methods. In each artwork, Lynch upheaves the landscapes that he paints, reassembles them, and reduces his compositions to planes of pattern and colour. Lynch approaches his paintings with a tessellated vision, drawing wonderful parallels to the digitally informed processes that inspire them.

Photography, field-trip sketches, and collage inform the artist’s final paintings, most of which depict his home province of Wakefield, Quebec. In the studio, brush, washes, masking and airbrush techniques are used, skilfully combined by Lynch to emulate the appearance of recognisable ‘real worlds’.

Gavin Lynch holds a BFA from Emily Carr University (2009) and a MFA from the University of Ottawa (2012). He is the recipient of awards and grants from various organisations, including the Canada Council for the Arts (2014), the Ontario Arts Council (2013) and the province of Ontario (2011).

In 2014 Lynch was a finalist in the RBC Painting Competition, which was exhibited at the Musée des Beaux Arts.  His work has been exhibited across Canada, featured in Canadian Art magazine and is in various permanent collections, including Air Canada, Simon Fraser University, TD Canada Trust and the City of Ottawa Permanent Collection.

Those interested in exploring more are invited to contact: danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au

From July 6th – 29th, 2023 Michael Reid Sydney will exhibit Mundhurr- The Gift, a comprehensive collection of new work by Gaypalani Wanambi, Muluymuluy Wirrpanda and Djurrayun Murrinyina, three female artists shaping the next generation of Yolŋu artistic practice.

There are no words for ‘thank you’ or ‘please’ in the Yolŋu tongue. At first this raises so many questions. Is there no gratitude in this society? Are there no manners? Is there such paucity of expression in the language? Are they just rude!?

The answer to these questions is surprising. It stems from a fundamental philosophical foundation in Yolŋu life. These terms are unnecessary; Everyone is so connected as one family that the flow of resources between people is unremarkable and treated as a given. If I need something it is mine, whoever has it will freely give it without the need for a thank you. After a while in this society the sense of rudeness dissolves and it becomes relaxing to exchange things without the power relationship in the transaction needing to be acknowledged.

But what then is the meaning of a gift in such a place? How can there be a gift if goods being exchanged is as of right? In the sacred and ceremonial realm there is a different dynamic. The ritual exchange of sacred objects, knowledge or ceremonies is a foundational element of Yolŋu social cohesion. And in the context of this exhibition that is what is being witnessed. Each of these artists are the recipients of a sacred gift of knowledge and identity which they have shared here.

To discuss works of art in this exhibition please email tobymeagher@michaelreid.com.au

Gaypalani Wanambi‘s father Mr. W. Wanambi made sure that she was a major part of his highly successful career from when she was young. He tutored her in her law and encouraged her to paint in her own right as well as assisting him in his work. After his death out of respect for him she eschewed the themes of spirit fish in the waters of Trial Bay and instead describes the journeys of the ancestral honey hunter and the bees hiding in hollows in the stringybark.

Muluymuluy Wirrpanda was a loyal and constant sister to Ms. M. Wirrpanda. They painted together side by side at the art centre. As the elder sister explored an innovative string of genres Muluymuluy was a companion artist riffing on the topics of native Australian vegetables, fruit and shellfish. Never copying but always harmonising. This has continued after the loss of her sister as she honours the gift of that time they had together.

Following the loss of her mother Djurrayun Murrinyina stopped painting the lillies of Garrimala which had made Ms. M. Gumana famous. This convention is part of the disciplines of spiritual hygiene which are so crucial to Yolŋu mortuary customs. Anything which impedes the progress of the departing spirit is forbidden. Nothing can be done which would endanger the eventual return of that soul back to the family of the living. But the gift of intricate colour mixing and fine cross hatching which Djurrayun received from her mother is very much in play.

For those of us who believe in such things; we owe the departed donors a sincere thank you for passing on their inspiration to a new generation of talented Yolŋu artists.