Distance - Online Exhibition

Michael Simms' online solo exhibition showcases a new series of intimately scaled landscape paintings created during the artist's recent travels to the Broken Hill region. As a site that holds personal significance for him, the resulting artworks reflect both a sense of hereditary exploration and a subjective appreciation of the areas unique topography. Within his superbly crafted distillations of the regions haunting and cinematic vastness, Simms skillfully captures the essence of a fleeting moment. Sensitively observing the dramatic quality of light so unique to the Australian outback, these images are also infused with a psychological charge, blurring of the boundaries between reality and the dreamlike.

ARTIST STATEMENT‘Distance’ is a new series inspired by my residency in Broken Hill earlier this year. The works are a response to the haunting beauty of this unique part of Australia, as well as an introspective exploration of identity.

With its rich indigenous history and complicated mining past, Broken Hill and its surroundings have long held a deep fascination for artists. The diverse natural splendour contrasts against the industrial mining infrastructure in a captivating way – and empty buildings create an overwhelming sense of bygone days that spark the imagination.

The region also holds great personal significance – my grandparents began their life together in Wilcannia, and my mother was born and raised in Broken Hill so I had frequent visits throughout my formative years to spend time with relatives. The open skies and distinctive red earth always inspired me as a child – and given its position as a mecca for artists over the years, it was also my first exposure to painting.

As more and more family members moved to bigger cities, or passed on, my trips to Broken Hill became less frequent. It had been almost 10 years since my last visit, but throughout 2020 I had a powerful yearning to go back – perhaps a response to the restricted movements and existential questions posed by the pandemic. In April this year I decided to rent an old shop that had been converted into a studio space by the Broken Hill Art Exchange (which, as a bizarre twist of fate, shared a wall with the hairdressing salon my mother ran 50 years ago).

I felt a powerful wave of both adrenaline and nostalgia wash over me during my time in Broken Hill. Excitement was tinged with poignancy as I reflected on the past, and it was this complex interplay of emotions that was the catalyst for these works. Each piece in ‘Distance’ holds a distinct memory – painted from an emotional reaction to the environment in the present, but also coloured by my memories and the passage of time. The experience has been both profound and creatively fulfilling.

ARTIST PROFILE Michael Simms is a Sydney based figurative painter who holds a Diploma of Fine Arts from the Julian Ashton Art School. In 2019 Simms was awarded a residency at the New York Academy of Art in Tribeca, Manhattan and in 2018 was the winner of both the Art Society of NSW Young Artist Prize and the SBS Portrait Prize. He has been a finalist many art prizes including in the Manning Naked and Nude Art Prize (2021), the Lethbridge Art Award (2021, 2019), the SBS Portrait Prize (2021, 2020), the Shirley Hannan Portrait Prize (2020), the Percival Portrait Prize (2020), the Sunshine Coast Art Prize (2020) and the Lester Prize (2020) to name just a few. In 2017 he was also a finalist in the prestigious Doug Moran Portrait Prize. His work is held in numerous private collections including the Elliott Eyes Collection, the Thomas Keneally Centre at the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, Cliftons Venues, Sydney and YSC Consulting, Sydney.