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.

One of the most beloved names in our Newport Gallery stable, Emily Gordon will present her first solo presentation at Michael Reid Sydney in December. This special release of five new paintings arrives after a succession of sell–out shows and also follows the artist’s shortlisting in this year’s Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize.

Celebrating the titular neighbourhood’s densely layered streetscapes, The Paddington Project sees Gordon’s sweeping and delightfully detailed vistas expressed on her largest surfaces to date.

“I wanted to delve into a more intimate understanding of the distinctively local” says the artist, who beautifully captures the eclectic jumble of Victorian rooftops and gelato-toned terraces that spill over hilly topography. In this this quintessentially Sydney suburb of Paddington, Gordon has found the perfect subject to take her practice to a newly immersive scope.

Works of art in this exhibition are currently available to preview by appointment. Our exhibition will open to the public on Thursday November 28. To discuss an acquisition or to arrange a viewing appointment ahead of the exhibition opening, please email willkollmorgen@michaelreid.com.au

For our final major exhibition of 2024, Michael Reid Sydney will present the first solo exhibition from Dyarubbin/Hawksbury–based contemporary painter Julz Beresford since she was inducted into the gallery’s stable of artists. A Journey To The Heart will form a fabulous and fitting capstone to Michael Reid Sydney’s 2024 exhibition program, which commenced in January with Beresford’s widely celebrated show, Breathe Deeply.

Reflecting on her lifelong affinity for the Hawksbury region of New South Wales, the moody, atmospheric and monumental landscapes of Breathe Deeply were an immediate sell-out success, establishing Beresford as a rising art star whose work is closely watched and coveted in Australia and abroad.

In her newest exhibition, Julz Beresford explores changing light over the Hawksbury River, treating audiences to her exquisite renderings of dusk and dawn. Beresford’s paintings are awash with Romantic sensibilities, sending the viewer on a journey through glassy, rippling waterways that snake through tangles of bush and tumbling sandstone.

Motivated collectors were quick to acquire artworks from this exhibition at Sydney Contemporary 2024, most while still drying in the artist’s studio. Those seeking to acquire Beresford’s work are encouraged to contact danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au now, for access to and information about the artists first Regional Gallery exhibition taking place at The Basil Sellers Art Centre in March 2025.