Michael Reid Northern Beaches

Michael Reid Northern Beaches Michael Reid Northern Beaches showcases a selection of emerging Australian artists.

The program is directed and thoughtfully presented by the celebrated author and curator Amber Creswell Bell.

COMING SOON: BEN WATERS | ‘The Moments In Between’ | 18 June–11 July | Michael Reid Northern BeachesThis week, we are de...
02/06/2026

COMING SOON: BEN WATERS | ‘The Moments In Between’ | 18 June–11 July | Michael Reid Northern Beaches

This week, we are delighted to announce the imminent return of Avalon-based contemporary painter BEN WATERS, whose next solo exhibition, ‘The Moments In Between’, is available to preview online and by request.

One of the most distinctive voices in Australian landscape painting and a major force within the creative community of our idyllic slice of coastal Sydney, Waters has built a celebrated practice grounded in his enduring connection to the waterways, escarpments and bushland surrounding his longtime home.

“In between a view, a tree, a branch, a moment,” notes Waters in the Moleskine he kept during the making of this new body of work and which ultimately inspired its title. “In between an ocean, a bay, the tides, our thoughts. In between the sun, the shade, the wind, our breath. In between what we see, we feel, we remember, we share. In between them all are simply moments.”

After sketching during long, meandering bushwalks, Waters returns to his Avalon studio to translate his impressions of our natural environment through a highly original visual language. Capturing willowy gums as they arch and overlap atop steep escarpments that sweep towards glittering expanses of water, Waters brings his paintings to life with a bold graphic charge and an approach to colour that is entirely his own.

“Colour is not chosen to replicate what’s seen, but to express what’s felt,” writes Grace Elliot in a story accompanying the artist’s collaboration with iconic Australian design and lifestyle marque King Living. “For Ben, colour is never literal.”

With ‘The Moments In Between’, Waters conjures landscapes poised between observation and memory, immediacy and reflection. Vibrant passages of colour and interlacing forms evoke the shifting moods of the bush, the play of light across water and the fleeting sensations that linger long after a walk has ended.

Works have arrived at Newport, where they can be viewed in person ahead of the opening. For enquiries, please email [email protected].



YOU’RE INVITED: LEONA DEBOLT | ‘Autumn Nights at the Bowlo’ | Opening Drinks TODAY, Saturday, 30 May, 2–4pm | Michael Re...
30/05/2026

YOU’RE INVITED: LEONA DEBOLT | ‘Autumn Nights at the Bowlo’ | Opening Drinks TODAY, Saturday, 30 May, 2–4pm | Michael Reid Northern Beaches

Please join Northern New South Wales-based artist LEONA DEBOLT this Saturday, 30 May, at Michael Reid Northern Beaches to celebrate the opening of her first solo exhibition at the gallery, ‘Autumn Nights at the Bowlo’. Drinks will be served from 2pm and all are welcome to come along, meet the artist and experience her vibrant new series of abstract, colour-soaked figures.

“Treasured autumn evenings on the strip between the river and the ocean with the sound of waves, and the band at the bowlo humming in the background,” says DeBolt, setting the scene for her series amid the soft rhythms of Wooli’s coastline. “These portraits offer a snapshot of characters gathered at the fibro fishing shack as the sun slips below the horizon. With a tinny in hand, they sit in easy conversation as the everyday becomes quietly significant.”

ARTIST DRINKS
Leona DeBolt | ‘Autumn Nights at the Bowlo’
Saturday, 30 May, 2–4pm
Michael Reid Northern Beaches
2/358 Barrenjoey Road
Newport NSW 2106

Working intuitively across layered surfaces, DeBolt’s expressive paintings hover between portraiture and pure sensation, capturing moments of easy connection and the soft rhythms of coastal life.

To enquire about ‘Autumn Nights at the Bowlo’ or RSVP to this Saturday’s public celebration, please email [email protected]
debolt

YOU’RE INVITED: BETRA FRAVAL | ‘Wading’ | Opening Drinks this Saturday, 30 May, 2–4pm | Michael Reid Northern BeachesPle...
26/05/2026

YOU’RE INVITED: BETRA FRAVAL | ‘Wading’ | Opening Drinks this Saturday, 30 May, 2–4pm | Michael Reid Northern Beaches

Please join celebrated Naarm/Melbourne-based artist and 2026 Bayside Painting Prize winner BETRA FRAVAL this Saturday, 30 May, at Michael Reid Northern Beaches to toast the arrival of her first solo exhibition at the gallery, ‘Wading’. Drinks will be served from 2pm and everyone is welcome to come along, meet the artist and experience her radiant new series of expressive waterscapes – the culmination of her recent residency at Bundanon.

“It emerged as my sensory and emotional experience of place felt heightened and amplified, contrasting with months prior spent navigating my father’s stroke and brain injury,” says Fraval of ‘Wading’, which arrives soon after the announcement of her win at the Bayside Painting Prize, where she received the $10,000 Beckett Local Prize. “At Bundanon, I stepped out of a darkened room and saw the world in vivid colour. It was a moment of reprieve, wonder and renewed openness. This work holds a memory of that magical time when landscape offered not just solace, but a sense of lightness and possibility.”

ARTIST DRINKS
Betra Fraval | ‘Wading’
Saturday, 30 May, 2–4pm
Michael Reid Northern Beaches
2/358 Barrenjoey Road
Newport NSW 2106

Across the colour-soaked canvases comprising ‘Wading’, paint pools and seeps into the warp and weft of raw linen as lushly translucent, evanescent sweeps of light and tone coalesce to form luminous waterscapes – all with a fluidity that matches her figures’ unfettered embrace of the natural world.

“‘Wading Out (Misty Morning)’ marked a shift in my practice where figures began entering landscapes that I previously painted as sites shaped by human intervention,” says Fraval, citing a favourite work from her new series. “Rather than focusing on the impact of people on the environment, this work instead reflects on the profound effect the environment can have on us.”

To enquire about ‘Wading’ or RSVP to this Saturday’s public celebration, please email [email protected]



NOW OPEN: LEONA DEBOLT | ‘Autumn Nights at the Bowlo’ | Until 13 June | Michael Reid Northern BeachesThis weekend at Mic...
22/05/2026

NOW OPEN: LEONA DEBOLT | ‘Autumn Nights at the Bowlo’ | Until 13 June | Michael Reid Northern Beaches

This weekend at Michael Reid Northern Beaches, we are delighted to present our first solo exhibition by Northern New South Wales-based artist LEONA DEBOLT, the evocatively titled ‘Autumn Nights at the Bowlo’. Now available to explore and acquire online and at the gallery, this ebullient, colour-soaked suite of abstract faces finds the artist holding on to holiday mode amid the season’s cooler change.

“Treasured autumn evenings on the strip between the river and the ocean with the sound of waves, and the band at the bowlo humming in the background,” says DeBolt, setting the scene for her series amid the soft rhythms of Wooli’s coastline. “These portraits offer a snapshot of characters gathered at the fibro fishing shack as the sun slips below the horizon. With a tinny in hand, they sit in easy conversation as the everyday becomes quietly significant.”

In DeBolt’s hands, these moments of warm and convivial connection unfold in abstracted, energetic bursts of colour – fleshy pinks, lemon sorbet, cornflower blue – forming expressive, graphically charged figures that live between portraiture and pure sensation.

“I had a lot of fun making them. It felt open, energised. I learnt a lot about myself in the process too,” says the artist, who returned to painting in her late thirties after a hiatus, when, as she puts it, “not painting stopped being an option.”

Working across layered surfaces using acrylic, oil, enamel, raw pigment, pastel and charcoal, DeBolt is guided by instinct and an openness to process as each composition is reworked towards a point of balance.

“Music is a big part of my creative process,” says DeBolt, citing Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou as being on high rotation during her series’ creation, much of which took place outdoors between Emerald Beach and Wooli. “My favourite works are quick, instinctive and really loose,” she adds, speaking to the immediacy that colours this dazzling new collection.

For enquiries, please email [email protected]
debolt

YOU’RE INVITED: JORDY HEWITT | ‘Dirty Work’ | Opening Drinks next Saturday, 30 May, 2–4pm | Michael Reid Northern Beache...
22/05/2026

YOU’RE INVITED: JORDY HEWITT | ‘Dirty Work’ | Opening Drinks next Saturday, 30 May, 2–4pm | Michael Reid Northern Beaches

On behalf of JORDY HEWITT, the Michael Reid Northern Beaches team is delighted to invite you to our celebration of her newly opened solo exhibition, ‘Dirty Work’ – officially to be welcomed with drinks at the gallery next Saturday, 30 May, 2–4pm.

Already an established presence on the West Australian art scene and an ascendant voice in Australian contemporary painting more broadly, the Walyalup/Fremantle-based artist will travel to our Newport gallery for her first solo exhibition in Eora/Sydney, offering collectors, visitors and Northern Beaches locals the opportunity to meet Hewitt, hear directly from the artist and gain insight into her distinctive painting practice.

ARTIST DRINKS
Jordy Hewitt | ‘Dirty Work’
Saturday, 30 May, 2–4pm
Michael Reid Northern Beaches
2/358 Barrenjoey Road
Newport NSW 2106

Raised along the coastline of Boorloo/Perth, Hewitt has honed a distinctive and compelling approach to abstraction that remains deeply attuned to the sensory and elemental qualities of coastal life. “The exhibition embraces sensitivity and emotional intensity as necessary parts of lived experience,” writes Hunter & Folk founder and editor Hande Renshaw in a story published online in the lead-up to the debut of ‘Dirty Work’. “Jordy’s paintings resist perfection in favour of something more tactile, instinctive and honest, creating a body of work that feels both deeply physical and psychologically charged.”

A powerful and richly absorbing statement from an artist on the rise, Hewitt’s new suite of sweeping, emotionally charged abstractions follows her star turn in our 2025 group survey, ‘Beyond Form’. Two of her paintings are held in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

‘Dirty Work’ by Jordy Hewitt is now on view at Michael Reid Northern Beaches and can be experienced in person and online throughout the week leading up to our Artist Drinks next Saturday, 30 May.

For all enquiries and to RSVP, please email [email protected]



NOW OPEN: BETRA FRAVAL | ‘Wading’ | Until 13 June | Michael Reid Northern BeachesCelebrated Naarm/Melbourne-based artist...
21/05/2026

NOW OPEN: BETRA FRAVAL | ‘Wading’ | Until 13 June | Michael Reid Northern Beaches

Celebrated Naarm/Melbourne-based artist BETRA FRAVAL makes her Michael Reid Northern Beaches debut this week with ‘Wading’ – a radiant new suite of expressive waterscapes realised while completing the prestigious Artist in Residence program at Bundanon. Now on view at our Newport gallery, the exhibition arrives close on the heels of Fraval’s triumph in the 2026 Bayside Painting Prize, where she was awarded the $10,000 Beckett Local Prize.

“The spaciousness and lightness of the artist’s touch allows the paint to remain visible,” note the Bayside judges of Fraval’s prizewinning work, selected from more than 500 entries and held in the Bayside City Council collection. “The painting provides lyrical prompts to the viewer, each compositional element a proposition for narrative that is neither obvious nor prescribed.”

These qualities are richly evident throughout ‘Wading’, which positions the landscape as both physical and psychological terrain where external and internal states converge. “It emerged as my sensory and emotional experience of place felt heightened, contrasting with months prior spent navigating my father’s stroke and brain injury,” says Fraval.

“At Bundanon, I stepped out of a darkened room and saw the world in vivid colour. It was a moment of reprieve, wonder and renewed openness. This work holds a memory of that magical time when landscape offered not just solace, but a sense of lightness and possibility.”

Across Fraval’s colour-soaked canvases, paint pools and seeps into the warp and weft of raw linen as lushly translucent, evanescent sweeps of light and tone coalesce to form luminous waterscapes – all with a fluidity that matches her figures’ unfettered embrace of the natural world.

“They seek lightness without denying weight,” says Fraval, who, beyond her Bayside win, is a three-time John Leslie Art Prize finalist. “They indicate a shift towards an intuitive, gestural language as figures and forms hover between emergence and dissolution.”

For enquiries, please email [email protected]



NOW OPEN: JORDY HEWITT | ‘Dirty Work’ | Until 13 June | Michael Reid Northern BeachesThis week, we are delighted to pres...
21/05/2026

NOW OPEN: JORDY HEWITT | ‘Dirty Work’ | Until 13 June | Michael Reid Northern Beaches

This week, we are delighted to present ‘Dirty Work’ – the first solo exhibition at Michael Reid Northern Beaches by celebrated Walyalup/Fremantle-based artist JORDY HEWITT.

This significant suite of sweeping, emotionally charged abstractions represents a powerful and richly absorbing statement from Hewitt – already an established presence on the West Australian art scene and an exciting, ascendant voice in contemporary painting more broadly. ‘Dirty Work’ can be explored online, by request and at the gallery, where Hewitt will join us for her show’s public celebration next Saturday, 30 May, 2–4pm.

Raised along the coastline of Boorloo/Perth, Hewitt has honed a distinctive approach to abstraction that remains deeply attuned to the sensory and elemental qualities of coastal life. “The exhibition embraces sensitivity and emotional intensity as necessary parts of lived experience,” writes Hunter & Folk editor Hande Renshaw in her story on ‘Dirty Work’. “Jordy’s paintings resist perfection in favour of something more tactile, instinctive and honest, creating a body of work that feels both deeply physical and psychologically charged.”

“Hewitt doesn’t shy away from mess and grit,” writes Freya Bennett in her essay accompanying the artist’s new show, in which paintings envelop the viewer in shifting, gossamer layers of colour that overlap with more densely grounded markings. “The raw energy of her emotion is alive on the canvas, drawing us into her world, because ‘Dirty Work’ is a response not just to Hewitt’s world, but to our world at large. Our precious, turbulent world.”

Since completing her studies at Curtin University in 2014, Hewitt has exhibited widely across Australia and in major prizes, including the Hutchins Art Prize, Bayside Painting Prize, the Agendo Art Prize and the Mandorla Art Award. Two of her paintings are held in the Art Gallery of Western Australia collection.

To discuss the series or RSVP to our Artist Drinks on Saturday, 30 May, 2–4pm, please email [email protected]



Congratulations to South Australian artist BRENTON DRECHSLER, whose latest exhibition of paintings, ‘Stripes 6 – Open Do...
21/05/2026

Congratulations to South Australian artist BRENTON DRECHSLER, whose latest exhibition of paintings, ‘Stripes 6 – Open Doors’, has been acquired in its entirety by collectors just as the show concludes its celebrated run at Michael Reid Northern Beaches.

This is a fabulous result for an artist whose practice continues to go from strength to strength. ‘Stripes 6 – Open Doors’ marked his second solo show at our Newport space and the first since the announcement of his joint representation by Michael Reid Northern Beaches and Southern Highlands.

“This body of work looks to interior spaces inhabited by my partner and me, both in our home on Kaurna Land and in places abroad,” says Drechsler of ‘Stripes 6’, which builds on the creative breakthrough of a body of work produced for our flagship Eora/Sydney gallery’s year-end group survey Painting Now, which was likewise sold out and warmly received upon its November 2025 release.

“Through a series of oil paintings and through the lens of q***r subjectivity, I set out to explore the internal spaces in which I spend time relaxing, thinking and processing. These works reflect the environments that hold quiet moments of reflection as well as shared experiences of intimacy and domestic life.”

To sign up for first access to forthcoming releases by Brenton Drechsler, please email [email protected]



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2/358 Barrenjoey Road, Newport
Sydney, NSW
2106

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