With an instinctive meshing together of material and feel, Mark Merrikin’s paintings capture everyday connections between friends and family. This might feel like a well-trod path, but there is an unusual tenderness and direct gesture in the work. Figures feel lovingly embraced by a wild meshing of patterns and shifting surfaces. A colour link to the Fauvist modernists is there but then knocked back by accretions of cement and spray paint. Built up grainy areas bring the outside in to these images, landing the work in an urban present.

Mark Merrikin is an emerging artist from Woolgoolga on the NSW mid-north coast. He is now based in Port Kembla, having graduated from the University of Wollongong. The Egg & Dart is excited to present the artist’s first show at the gallery. Click here to read more and to view the exhibition catalogue…