visual artist / creative researcher / social commentator

HIGHLIGHTS

Kairos exhibition at The Barn, Rosny Farm 28 July–20 August 2023

The 'Kairos' exhibition seeks to explore notions of time and place through an immersive, audio visual experience within The Barn (c1818) at Rosny Farm. This solo exhibition will include artworks inspired by over a decade of art residences in natural places from around Australia and the Pacific - including new work inspired by my wonderful new home in nipaluna/Hobart. For more information and regular updates please visit my blog. Photos below are by me and from the Clarence arts and events website.

 

Please join me for the opening on Sunday 30 July at 1pm, Rosny Farm, Rosny Hill Road, Rosny Park, Tasmania 7018

Photographer: Katie Bennett
Photographer: Katie Bennett

Her Beauty and Her Terror exhibition at Redcliffe Art Gallery, 22 April to 2 September 2023 (previously at Caboolture Regional Art Gallery, 26 Jun 2021 - 11 Sep 2021)

"The Australian landscape can instil fear and inspire awe - it is an ecosystem that is entirely its own. The picture of Australia evoked by Dorothea Mackellar’s prose in ‘My Country’ still rings true more than 100 years later. She is a land that is beautiful and terrifying, she can be harsh just as she is nurturing.

 

For Her beauty and her terror contemporary artists explore the Australian landscape in its extremities, subtleties and forms to consider our connection to it. Artists include: Anna Litwinowicz, Amber Hearn, Libby Harward, Charlotte Haywood, Jarrod Van Der Ryken, Polly Stanton, Amy Joy Watson, Mandy Quadrio, Jane Burton,  Katarina Vesterberg, Katrin Koenning, Yvonne Mills-Stanley, Samantha Lang and Merri Randell." (Caboolture Regional Art Gallery)


A wonderful exhibition curated by Hannah Williamson with help from her amazing team at Caboolture Regional Art Gallery and Redcliffe Art Gallery. Please visit my blog to watch the 2021 artist talk and see more great 2021 documentation photography by Katie Bennett from Embellysh Photography.


'Touching the Mauri' (Randell 2018)

'Touching the Mauri' is a multi-projection immersive AV installation created for the 'He kākano āhau' (I am a seed) group exhibition at the Logan Art Gallery. Artists included: Cheremene Castle, Tania Hapai Heta, Jackie Hawkins, Leona Morete, Mihimai Nikora, Onesian (Allen Vili),Merri Randell and Teraimana Tahiata. Click here for exhibition catalogue.

 

The journey of 'Touching the Mauri' travels from Peru to Hawaii to New Zealand and back to Australia, blending magical landscape creation story myths from a childhood in a rural Anglo Māori Australian Mormon household to fold time on itself. Soundscape created by Whaia Whaea (whaiacreation.com)

 

This artwork has also been shown at the Australian Centre for Photography (ACP), Sydney at the 'Plant + Human' exhibition (Feb-Apr 2019), in Brisbane as part of the Pacific Arts Association International Symposium 'Coming Together Through Strength & Culture' (Mar 2019) and at the 2019 Moreton Bay Region Art Awards exhibition (May 2019). This project is supported by the Regional Arts Development Fund, a partnership between the Queensland Government and Logan City Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.



Bunya: Whip Roots (Randell 2015)
Outings:
2023 Kairos exhibition: The Barn at Rosny Farm (HBA), 2015 Queensland Regional Art Awards finalist and touring exhibition, 2016 [UN] natural urges exhibition: Brenda May Gallery (SYD), 2015 Arts meets Science exhibition (BNE)

The Fen: Friggy (Randell 2013)
Outings:

2023 Kairos exhibition: The Barn at Rosny Farm (HBA), 2023 Her Beauty and Her Terror exhibition: Redcliffe Art Gallery (QLD), 2021 Her Beauty and Her Terror exhibition: Caboolture Regional Art Gallery (QLD), 2016 [UN] natural urges exhibition: Brenda May Gallery (SYD), 2015 Sunshine Coast Art Prize finalist exhibition (QLD), AntiMation touring exhibition (2014 BNE, 2015 CNS, 2016 SYD), 2015 Paramor Prize: Art+Innovation finalist exhibition, 2014 Brisbane Experimental Art Festival (BEAF), 2014 Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP) Salon exhibition (MEL), 2014 Virion Festival: Parer Place (BNE)

The Fen: Furnace (Randell 2013)

Outings:

2023 The Loop (HBA), 2022 Glenorchy Open exhibition: Moonah Arts Centre (HBA), 2016 [UN] natural urges exhibition: Brenda May Gallery (SYD), 2014 Noosa Art Award finalist exhibition (QLD), 2014 BEAF (BNE), 2014 CCP Salon exhibition (MEL), 2014Virion Festival: Parer Place (BNE), 2012 Crane Arts Icebox (USA)


Bellmore: Roots (Randell 2015)
Outings:

2023 Kairos exhibition: The Barn at Rosny Farm (HBA), 2016 Queensland Regional Art Awards finalist and touring exhibition, 2016 [UN] natural urges exhibition: Brenda May Gallery (SYD), 2016 Arts meets Science exhibition (BNE), 2016 Uncanny Nature exhibition Logan Art Gallery, 2015 CCP Salon exhibition (MEL), 2015 Logan BushCare Residency exhibition (QLD)

The Fen: Pan 14 (Randell 2014)
Outings:

2023 The Loop (HBA), 2023 Her Beauty and Her Terror exhibition: Redcliffe Art Gallery (QLD), 2021 Her Beauty and Her Terror exhibition: Caboolture Regional Art Gallery (QLD), 2016 [UN] natural urges exhibition Brenda May Gallery (SYD), 2016 Uncanny Nature exhibition Logan Art Gallery, 2014 Hans Heysen Art Award finalist exhibition, 2014 Clayton Utz Art Award finalist (noted) exhibition, 2014 BEAF (BNE), 2014 Virion Festival: Parer Place (BNE), 2012 Crane Arts Icebox (USA)

crosseXions: Gash (Randell 2016)
Outings:

2023 QAC My World: Voice and Visibility exhibition: QVMAG (LST), 2016 crosseXions touring exhibition: Metro-Arts (BNE), Cross Arts Projects (SYD) and Alaska Projects (SYD), 2016 Arts meets Science Exhibition (BNE), 2016 Busybrick ARI happening (BNE)