Max Berry’s latest body of work is an excursion into the everyday and his continued commitment to ‘A Return to Slow’, a mediative and reflective experience.
'Seeing Things' is collection of ordinary images that in some way hope to capture something extraordinary.
Across Max’s practice ‘place’ has emerged as a defining interest, where endless horizons invite the viewer to consider the mediative quality of isolation. An atmosphere of stillness permeates his work and speaks of the way that individuals navigate our world and the importance of the ‘places’ we find shelter.
Recent works have focused on painting and drawing, particularly in the expression of the Australian landscape. Outdoor expeditions have been key to his studio practice, leading to works that reveal an appreciation for the characteristics of light and atmosphere. Views of hills, paths and towns that feature trees, houses or both make up majority of his compositions and each highlight the reduction of forms to their essential shapes so that narratives might form in those in-between places.
“Monochromatic, analogous, complementary, triadic. Seeing things yellow, red and all in between. Seeing lemon, sunrays, orange, tangerine, Australian dirt. Seeing wind, rain, sun, light and dark. The painters canvas begins blank. It is perhaps almost turbid in a sense - coarse and unaligned, unimagined and undescribed . Colourless, the colours are placed, and emerged, in aid of being seen by the eye and identified with a past, a memory, a dream of the viewer’s hidden. These paintings are here to be seen. They exude depth, colours, shadows, warmth and fade. See them.” - Angela Garrick