26/05/2026
Now Representing Merric Brettle.
We are delighted to announce Australia wide representation of Melbourne based artist Merric Brettle:
The surfaces of my works are in a sense ‘immaculate’, not because they are perfect, but because I am disconnected from them by the air between atomised particles of paint. I hope viewers explore my presence within the works — sometimes in the surface, sometimes on it in vinyl, and at other times beside, behind, throughout, or above it as works combine to express a larger idea. In this way, I do not simply make images, but play with them as material.”
Merric’s practice is an ongoing exploration of living within an image-mediated world. His work broadly falls into two categories: ‘pattern finding’ works, which remake sampled imagery to better understand both his relationship to it and the world it represents; and ‘reflections’, which use these works or related ideas to consider existence within a surfacialised, fragmented, and mechanised world.
Central to his practice is the use of sprayed automotive lacquer to examine his relationship to sampled imagery, alongside an exploration of images as objects. This process allows him to manipulate images while retaining their sense of being ‘found’.
Over the past thirty years, Merric has exhibited extensively across Australian and Asian institutional, commercial, and independent spaces, including Terajima Kashiwa, Omotesando Garo Tokyo, Neu Contemporary Bangkok, Cartel Bangkok, Genkan Gallery Tokyo, The Japanese Consulate Melbourne, Brenda May Sydney, Peloton Sydney, Blindside Melbourne, Deutscher & Hackett Melbourne, Block Projects, and NKN Melbourne.
He was also a Monbusho (Japanese Government) Research Scholar and holds multiple degrees, including Master of Visual Art degrees from Tokyo University of the Arts and Sydney University. Merric has curated and participated in numerous Asia-Pacific cultural exchange exhibitions, particularly Japan/Australia projects in the early 2000s and Thailand/Australia exchanges throughout the 2010s.
merric
