Futures

Closing celebration: Friday 26 November 6-8pm

Gesturing to of one of her paintings Agnes Martin said, “To stay level and not ever go down below the line - above the line is happiness and comfort, below the line is all kinds of unpleasant thoughts.”

FUTURES is thrilled present a solo exhibition of new work by Matthew Harris entitled Goo. Seven curious paintings in shocking hues and shaped panels blend the musings of hard-edge abstraction with the jovially sardonic sensibility typical of Mathew’s practice. Goo operates from Queer Abstraction and delightfully breaks new ground.

Harris examined the friendship between Agnes Martin and Ellsworth Kelly, who used non - representational imagery to express feelings not easily verbalised. In contrast to their ordered surfaces, Matthew descends 'below the line' into abject, libidinal and amoebic forms with layers of acrylic paint mixed with the artist's own hair. Matthew finds similarity in this process of making to the process of peeling back layers of his matrilineal Koorie family, where gaps in knowledge are reflected in the absence of representational imagery.

Goo also includes a big heart-shaped soft sculpture. Made from a combination of possum pelts, and pink synthetic fur, the work was made in collaboration with his Mother – a re-learning of knowledge embedded in a traditional practice and gesture of love to mob.

PRESS
The Art Paper

Matthew Harris (Mixed European/Koorie descent), born 1991 in Wangaratta. Recent solo exhibitions include The Simple Life at Galerie Pompom, Sydney, 2021; Secrets don’t make friends at TCB Art Inc, Melbourne, 2021; Hell at Neon Parc, Melbourne, 2018; Cream Dream at Alaska Projects, Sydney, 2017. Recent group exhibitions include Choose Happiness at Murray Art Museum Albury, Albury, 2021; No Exit at Ashes/Ashes, New York City, 2020; 1991 at Hayden’s, Melbourne 2020; Haunted Penthouse at Spring 1883 with Neon Parc, Sydney, 2019; Without Fail at Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne, 2019. Some curatorial projects include Slime & Ashes, West Space/Arts Project Australia, Melbourne, 2020; Private Opulence Public Squalor, offsite, Melbourne, 2020; If only you were lonely, Bus Projects, 2018. Matthew is a current studio artist at Gertrude Contemporary.