Congratulations to Michael Muir, winner of the 67th annual Mosman Art Prize.
At the official exhibition opening on Thursday July 31, Michael Muir was awarded the 2014 $30,000 Mosman Art Prize for his oil painting, Behind the stacks, which will be on display at Mosman Art Gallery.
Muir was chosen from a finalist selection of 99 artworks, as judged by Felicity Fenner, Senior lecturer and Chief Curator at UNSW Galleries, COFA.
“It’s a striking, deceptively simple painting that stood out from others in its ability to convey a sense of place and the contemporary psyche. It’s a generic, modern place that he’s rendered, but one that’s invested with the kind of ambivalent narrative that often characterises everyday experiences in everyday places. We’re not quite sure what’s happening here, either with the landscape or between the two figures. The painting evokes film noir, embodying a dark presence that lurks just behind the sunny façade,” says Ms Fenner.
Michael Muir explains his 2014 winning work:
This work is part of a current body of work in which I continue to explore my environment and ideas about my proximity to the sea. I think my memories of the water and being outdoors still holds weight in terms of how I choose to live and in particular how this applies to my artwork. This particular work is based around the Wharf in Manly. The title is a snippet from something I was listening to at the time, I tend to generate titles through a wide variety of music whilst I paint.
Another aspect to the work is about perception and judgement. The use of palette knives to apply the paint is done with a deliberate subtlety, from afar the work looks flat and painted with brush, on closer inspection texture is revealed. This discord is deliberate in terms of the construction of the painting using hard edges of interlocking colours to flatten the picture plane. Using tonal variations of colours and in some cases reduced chroma, I try to create depth. The flattened shapes create an ambiguous image where a narrative is unfolding.
Mosman Art Gallery
Until 7 September, 2014
Sydney
Image: Michael Muir, Behind the stacks, 2014, oil on board, 137 x 132cm
Courtesy the artist and Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne