Unplugged

Michael Muir's work alludes to the underlying echoes of solitude found in the suburban landscape and the co-existing joie de vivre which he brings to the surface with his sun drenched colour palette recalling Australian nostalgia. Conveying this familiar duality where candy pinks and blues merge into the saturated greens of new growth and nature, his paintings are almost surrealist where a dream-like state and reality converge. Figures wander through urbanscapes; crossing streets, entering shops, resting on beaches or admiring the sky. Faceless and turned away from the viewer we are firmly placed on the other side, watching and contemplating. Muir's works playfully oscillate between memory and reality, figuration and abstraction, the familiar and the unknown. Born in Scotland in 1975, Muir's childhood was spent in South East Asia before settling in Sydney. He is a Mosman Art Prize winner (2014) and Wynne Prize finalist (2015, 2014). His work is represented in Artbank, Parliament House Art Collection and private collections throughout Australia and internationally.