Marion Abraham

Marion Abraham is a painter living and working in lutruwita (Tasmania, Australia) who investigates inner workings of the self.

Embracing a fiercely tangible approach to the medium, Abraham infuses subversive qualities with traditional painting techniques to execute dynamic compositions focussed on the body and the landscape. Guided by feminist instinct and a dark sense of humour, she melds romantic and escapist notions, familiar clichés and suggestive language with the muddiness of the natural world to navigate ideas of the soul, reimagine power structures and centre the valorising of care.

There is a deliberate urgency to Abraham’s brushwork that wavers between brutality and tenderness, tension and softness, chaos and control. Scenes are evocative of half-formed memories that have been conjured into existence, blurred features and negative space gives way to the strange and stirring moments that shape our personal and collective experiences. Depicting bucolic landscapes with bodies embracing each other in verdant fields or caressing animals with their hands, clad in white t-shirts and Adidas tracksuits, the artist presents a distinctly contemporary take on the romantic pastoral portrait. Blistering and brooding, Abraham relishes in the grimy nuances of life lived honestly and effusively with an energy that transcends the canvas.

Submitted by Sullivan+Strumpf