Michael Merrill: "Paint Factory"

Michael Merrill's recent project is a continuation of his playful examination of the underpinnings of the art world. Using traditional visual art media and sleight-of-hand technique, he transforms process into product, ground into form and syntax into significance.

The Paint Factory project consists of a series of four paintings about the manufacturing of oil paint. Based upon documentation gathered in a paint factory, of the process of making oil paints, the paintings depict the same image rendered on a different coloured ground – white plus the primary colours, yellow, red and blue. Using the proceeding one as the model, the works become progressively further removed from the source image. While retaining their subject, they become more distilled and open to interpretation and invention.

 

See the exhibition on Vimeo