Big Volcano

Michael Reid Murrurundi is delighted to present a dazzling new painting exhibition from one of the major stars of the Michael Reid stable of represented artists: Troy Emery. Titled Big Volcano and staged against suitably poppy and transportive scenography, this explosive new series finds the celebrated Naarm/Melbourne-based artist returning to fabulous feline forms after the grand unveiling of his public sculpture commission Guardian Lion, which now soars above Melbourne Square in the city’s Southbank culture precinct.

At Murrurundi, mythic cats and other wild and whimsical creatures prowl across the artist’s canvases and climb the blush-pink postmodern playground in which they are displayed. This magnificent menagerie is complemented by nods to Wedgwood-style urns and other decorative vessels that evoke mythologies and allegorical imagery from antiquity, albeit with lashings of vibrant contemporary style.

Conjured in thick, impasto sweeps that lend each painting a sense of density, lustre, and sculptural heft, Emery’s vivid canvases sit in close dialogue with the soft-sculptural practice for which he is internationally acclaimed. “The paintings allow me to work more quickly and experiment with imagery and allegory. Both practices reflect on our relationship with the natural world, but painting offers a looser, more expressive way to explore these ideas. The colour choices are bold and immediate, echoing the visual intensity of my sculptural work.”

Big Volcano reflects Emery’s interest in the big cat myths tied to the Grampians and Blue Mountains. These folk-spun creatures – as well as the figure of the feral cat – are cast as “modern symbols of nature’s intangibility,” he says. “They, like the historical figures, are outsiders. The works represent an uneasiness about our place in history and our position both within and adjacent to the natural world.”

Works from Big Volcano can be viewed and acquired at the gallery, online or by emailing colinesoria@michaelreid.com.au