Lara Merrett: High-Rise

About

COMA is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by acclaimed Australian artist Lara Merrett, titled ‘High-Rise’. The presentation acts as both a follow up and response to Merrett’s participatory installation ‘This is not a love song’, featured as part of Sydney Contemporary 2017, which marked a dramatic change in Merrett’s practice.

In ‘This is not a love song’ Merrett allowed the viewer to interact with her physical interrogations into the relationship between painting and its surrounding architecture, resulting in a changed and manipulated work kept seperate from the artists control. Through this new body of work with COMA the analysis and study of the audience reaction has resulted in a selection of large wall based pieces that continue to draw upon principles of abstraction and a colourist practice.

With an increased focus on the acknowledgement of how physical interactions with an artwork and interaction with it’s texture can cultivate strong emotions, emotions born similar to those born from simply seeing, these works are a proposition of a new perspective.