Merric Brettle
Born 1967, Sydney, Australia
Lives and works Melbourne, Aus
“The surfaces of my works are in a sense ‘immaculate’ but this is not because they are ‘perfect’ in anyway – but because ‘I’ am disconnected from them by the air between the atomised particles of paint. When reading my works therefore I hope for the viewer to explore my presence in them as ‘I’ am sometimes ‘in’ the surface, sometimes ‘on’ it in vinyl, and at other times ‘beside’, ‘behind’, ‘throughout’ and even ‘above’ it as I join works to express a sum idea. Thinking about the surface and my presence in this way, I hope that the viewer appreciates that I do not just make images, but explore a play with them as if they were a material.”
Merric’s practice is an open-ended exploration of living within an image-mediated world. Within this framework, there are two types of work that he creates. The first are his ‘pattern finding’ works, through which he explores the remaking of samples in order to better understand both his relationship to them and the world they represent and mediate. The second are his ‘reflections’, in which he uses his pattern-finding works, or ideas derived from them, to express the ways in which he has looked through our image mediation and come to understand existence within a surfacialized, fragmented, and mechanised world.
Central to Merric’s practice is the formal use of auto-acrylic spray paint to capture and examine his experience of these samples, alongside an exploration of images as objects. This allows him both to better understand his experiences and to manipulate the images without entirely losing their sense of being ‘found’.
Merric has maintained a deep engagement with the arts over the past thirty years, with an extensive exhibition history across Australian and Asian institutional, commercial, and independent spaces. His exhibitions have included venues such as 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 SCA (Sydney University). Merric has curated and participated in numerous exhibitions exploring cultural exchange throughout the Asia-Pacific region, with a particular focus on Japan/Australia exhibitions in the early 2000s and Thailand/Australia exchange projects throughout the 2010s.
Merric Brettle CV:
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Group Exhibitions:
De / formed, 2026
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