Entertainment

TarraWarra marks 50 years

December 19, 2024 6:15 pm

Lush ferns unfurl on a sky-blue wall. Thick white paint trickles along like water. Green moss dots a rock.

We are in the verdant Yarra Valley on Wurundjeri country in Victoria watching artist Georgia Szmerling layer acrylic paint into a mural on the walls of the TarraWarra Museum of Art.

The work is inspired by a recent walk at the nearby Badger Creek.

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Walking for inspiration is a regular practice for Szmerling. Here in the gallery, a series of A4 photo printouts of her recent excursion serve as references points as her brush meets the wall.

Szmerling has been making artworks and ceramics for more than two decades, including a collaboration with fashion brand Gorman, and last year was shortlisted for the Gosford Art Prize.

The result of Szmerling’s process is immersive and free-flowing. This mural is her first and forms part of TarraWarra Museum’s exhibition called Intimate Imaginaries — a survey of 50 prolific years at Arts Project Australia, a Northcote-based studio that supports artists with intellectual disabilities.