Lara Merrett

Sydney and Bendalong based artist Lara Merrett’s practice interrogates the relationship between painting and its surrounding architecture with site-specific work that invites us to enter and navigate its folds. Merrett’s larger scale commissioned work has involved public participation through touch, movement, cuttings, and its relationship to the built environment. Her simultaneous agility, amplification and softening of the rigid confines of canvas and gallery, both complicate and honor painterly traditions.

Merrett studied painting abroad at the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Spain, before completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales and graduating with a Master of Arts (Painting).

Merrett’s solo and group exhibitions have been presented nationally and internationally, most recently at Sullivan + Strumph in Sydney. She has received various grants and awards including the Sense of Place Grant, Shoalhaven City Council (2023) and The Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize (2022). She has been commissioned for various projects including the St Regis Hotel in Chengdu, China; the Victorian Tapestry Workshop for St Michaels Church, Melbourne; the Sofitel Hotel, Melbourne and her work is held by collections of the University of New South Wales, Sydney; Bundanon Trust; Artbank, Australia; Royal Automobile Club of Victoria; and Macquarie Bank and UBS, Australia.

OpenField will exhibit painting work by Merrett in a suspended installation.