Olsen Irwin is exhibiting an exhibition of works by Lara Merrett at the SWAB Contemporary Art Fair in Barcelona. 
Sydney-based Lara Merrett has brought together a major installation of colour-infused fabric with four of her large canvases to show at this innovative new fair.
Lara Merrett Slowly break away, come back again? 2015, acrylic and ink on canvas, 187 x 170cm
Merrett's work interrogates the process of painting by? leaving the easel and working on the floor. Her work is physical, gravitational, fluid and haptic. The vast scale of her painting embraced an engulfing aura, perpetually pushing the perimeters, eliminating the boundary between the package and the gift. Beneath her work on the studio floor were drop cloths, porous skins for the run off of ink, acrylic and water. As recently as last year her paintings began to slip from their moorings. Rough sliced with raw edges, sliding from the gallery wall onto the floor like the hem of a vast cape or a loosened flag. Seeking to ?shatter her own patterns? Merrett was approaching the anti-monolith. In her newest work, painting becomes performative, a-material, haptic, sculptural yet re-animated. The installation is singular and perpetually changing. What was once considered residue becomes the central subject, the stain becomes the mark. And perhaps this is painting at it?s most physical. Solid but free of the weight of materialism. The frame and the frame work removed. 
When the opportunity arose to participate in SWAB Olsen Irwin Director Tim Olsen jumped at the chance: "I have such fond memories of growing up in Spain, admiring the work of Antoni Tapias, and the overriding passion in the Spanish tradition, so when I saw this fair in Barcelona it just seemed like an easy fit with Lara Merrett?s work.? It?s a great honour that Lara agreed to go on this exciting journey, I?m certain her work will be very well received.? Tim Olsen Please click here to see more of works by Lara Merrett
When the opportunity arose to participate in SWAB Olsen Irwin Director Tim Olsen jumped at the chance: "I have such fond memories of growing up in Spain, admiring the work of Antoni Tapias, and the overriding passion in the Spanish tradition, so when I saw this fair in Barcelona it just seemed like an easy fit with Lara Merrett?s work.? It?s a great honour that Lara agreed to go on this exciting journey, I?m certain her work will be very well received.? Tim Olsen Please click here to see more of works by Lara Merrett
