Matthew Harris, Goo, 2021, installation view. Courtesy: the artist and FUTURES, Melbourne.

FUTURES is presents a solo exhibition of new work by Matthew Harris titled Goo. Seven curious paintings in shocking hues and shaped panels blend the musings of hard-edge abstraction with the jovially sardonic sensibility typical of Harris’ practice. Goo operates from queer abstraction and delightfully breaks new ground.

Harris examined the friendship between Agnes Martin and Ellsworth Kelly, who used non-representational imagery to express feelings not easily verbalised. In contrast to their ordered surfaces, Harris descends ‘below the line’ into abject, libidinal and amoebic forms with layers of acrylic paint mixed with the artist’s own hair. Harris finds similarity in this process of making to the process of peeling back layers of his matrilineal Koorie family, where gaps in knowledge are reflected in the absence of representational imagery.

Goo also includes a big heart-shaped soft sculpture. Made from a combination of possum pelts, and pink synthetic fur, the work was made in collaboration with his mother – a re-learning of knowledge embedded in a traditional practice and gesture of love to mob.

Closing celebration: Friday 26 November 6-8pm

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