Michael Reid Sydney is delighted to present a spectacular exhibition of sweeping and sublime landscapes by celebrated West Australian painter Carly Le Cerf. Titled Wayfinding: A Painter’s Path, this new series is a towering achievement from Le Cerf and will be celebrated with an opening reception at the gallery on Thursday, 31 July, 6–8pm.

“The original idea was simple,” says Le Cerf, discussing the making of her Wayfinding series for what is her first Eora/Sydney solo show in more than two years. “Create pieces so immersive that when you stand in front of them, your whole body is held by the land – no sky, just earth – inviting a full-body experience. What I didn’t anticipate was just how much these works would ask of me in return.” Pushing horizon lines to the very edge of the canvas, the vast topographical paintings of Wayfinding envelop the viewer in the red centre’s tones and textures, emotional resonance and elemental heft.

“Le Cerf’s intention is to express awe – that powerful and universal emotion,” writes art adviser Sarah Hetherington in the exhibition catalogue. “To be overwhelmed with feelings of reverence, admiration, even fear, in response to that which is grand, sublime and powerful.” Wayfinding is the ultimate expression of this soulful intensity – an outback odyssey that charts not only landforms traversed but interior routes forged through experience and intuition.

The force of Le Cerf’s work lies partly in her masterful approach to materiality, managing to zoom out to the vast sweep of the landscape while zeroing in on its granular details. “The process of layering and excavation is central,” says the artist. “It is an ongoing negotiation between what is concealed and what is exposed – a push and pull between opacity and translucency, grit and sheen, density and light. The result is a surface that feels alive: a shifting interplay of materials that rewards close, sustained looking.”

Wayfinding: A Painter’s Path is a major accomplishment from one of the great epic poets of the Australian landscape – one who continues to beat her own singular track across the contemporary art field. To discuss works from the series, please email danielsoma@michaelreid.com.au

A magnificent series of new paintings by senior Yankunytjatjara artist Betty Chimney will be on view in September at Michael Reid Sydney. A three-time AGNSW Wynne Prize finalist, Chimney is at the forefront of the innovative, exuberant, globally acclaimed new wave of First Nations painters working at Iwantja Arts.

To discuss priority access to paintings in this exhibition please contact dean@michaelreid.com.au

Paintings by Australia’s most senior female contemporary First Nations artist, Regina Pilawuk Wilson will grace the Sydney Gallery in 2025. A senior Ngan’gikurrungurr artist, NATSIAA winner and cultural director of Durrmu Arts Aboriginal Corporation, Wilson is internationally celebrated, collected and is represented by important institutional collections across the world.

To discuss priority access to paintings in this exhibition please contact dean@michaelreid.com.au

Scott Perkins returns to Michael Reid Sydney in April 2025 with a new series of expertly crafted photographs and light boxes. Located within photography and sculpture disciplines, Perkins’s treatment of the photographic medium is precisely engineered and highly original.

Presented in three distinct modes, his images of unidentified landscapes have been captured in a state of balance, occupying a space between light and dark. Brooding, atmospheric and technically imposing, Perkins’s images are a dynamic viewing experience.

In this exhibition, viewers will be treated to impeccably presented light-box photographs of bespoke design that transform their surrounding spaces. The artist’s use of Hanhnemule metallic paper add a complementary lustre to the surface of his mysterious still photographic images.

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

The next presentation in the upstairs gallery at Michael Reid Sydney will be our first solo exhibition from Eora/Sydney-based painter Kathy Liu, who previously dazzled audiences as one of the stars of our annual survey show Painting Now.

“My approach is highly intuitive,” says Liu, speaking with Belle magazine for a profile published in the lead-up to Painting Now. “I begin a painting without a pre-set concept, letting the colours and shapes emerge. Sometimes, it feels like I’m there to help the artworks find their own storylines.”

This open-ended process makes the canvas a conduit for fabulous adventures through imaginative worlds, inviting delightfully unexpected turns as amorphous pools begin to coalesce and playfully enigmatic, inchoate figures appear through diaphanous wafts of colour.

“It reflects my subconscious mind, bringing up narratives from my past life that I have almost forgotten,” says Liu. “Lost memories of childhood, my love of mythology, some distant lines of poetry, all of these are unburied through my work.” Like hazy memories or half-remembered dreams, the resulting works feel alive with emotion, poeticism, a sense of magic and effervescent movement.

From a smattering of stars and harlequin prints to crescent moons and cuddly creatures, figurative elements bubble up through ethereal, overlapping layers, recalling a sense of childlike innocence and unfettered imagination. But, as with the circus paintings of Chagall and Picasso – both cited by the artist as influences – there could be a tinge of melancholy or menace inside these dreamy scenes.

The ephemerality of childhood amusements is echoed by a gossamer quality that sees fragmentary images on the cusp of emerging or just fading away – an ambiguity that rhymes with Liu’s fluid approach and the serendipitous possibilities of her abstract practice.

After her celebrated showing in a stellar run of group exhibitions and her solo debut, Moon Phases, at Michael Reid Murrurundi, Liu’s upcoming presentation will be a chance for collectors to discover work from an exciting talent at a pivotal moment in her career.

For all enquiries, please contact dean@michaelreid.com.au