Marion Abraham: Joyride

Sullivan+Strumpf (Gadigal Land/Sydney) presents Marion Abraham ‘Joyride’, an exhibition in two parts.

The first centres a six-panel panorama that traverses the landscape of Abraham’s hometown of Molesworth in Lutruwita/Tasmania, depicting scenes that move from lightness to darkness, and back again. The second offers a quiet counterforce, composed of a series of intimate still life works. Blurring the line between non-fictive characters and leading figures who appear in canonical paintings throughout history, ‘Joyride’ captures baroque references alongside contemporary reflections of her own life.

Abraham is a painter living and working in Lutruwita/Tasmania who investigates inner workings of the self. Embracing a fiercely tangible approach to the medium, she infuses traditional painting techniques with dynamic and subversive qualities. The artist’s practice also operates as a rebuttal to seductive feelings of despair and the mysterious longing she feels between her family’s Lebanese lineage and birthplace in rural Australia.

Image caption: Marion Abraham ‘La Liberté (#2)’, 2024, oil and copper on wood, 100 x 100 cm. Photography by Aaron Anderson, courtesy of Sullivan+Strumpf.