CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Michelle Molinari

Reflect explores the duality that exists in both the physical and conceptual contemplation of still-life practice. Molinari's oeuvre is one of an almost obsessive desire to capture the fleeting notions of life and death in oil, honouring the subjects she chooses to paint by elevating each feather, each glassy eye and flash of colour with a refined deftness and lightness of touch that few in this contemporary age can conjure

Molinari's still life compositions combine both natural and man-made objects, forcing an association and conversation to occur within the frame. This, ultimately, is a reflection on our current existence with the natural world, one where interventions of man are scarcely unseen. Her practice, she describes, is a 'synthesis' of these juxtapositions, and an active forcing of a relationship and co-habitation of her subjects. Molinari actively recreates the appearance of birds, insects and bones through taxidermy and casting, an art in itself that the artist has honed to facilitate her investigations. These poised owls, rosellas, zebra finches, cicadas and bones can be perceived as both real and artificial at once, and are a marker of the artist ever present - through the creation of the composition, the immortalising of objects and considered presentation to us as the viewer.

Excerpt of essay by Melanie Caple, 2021

‘The process and understanding of taxidermy itself is vital to the developmental process of my work, not only does the act of creating the taxidermy enable me to acquire an internal and empathetic understanding of the animal, it is also just as revealing of the human sentiment to hold something away from death as well as reveal it.’
Artist Statement, Michelle Molinari

Listen: Michelle discussing her her work with Gippsland Art Gallery Curator Erin Mathews

A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts Michelle Molinari joined the FLG stable in 2013 after winning the FLG Emerging artist Award. She has been a finalist in the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award (2019, 2018, 2016), the Fisher's Ghost Art Award (2018) and the AME Bale Travelling Scholarship (2016). In 2017 her work was curated into the Art Gallery of Ballarat's group exhibition Romancing the Skull which explored themes of mortality, politics and rebellion. In the same year her work was included in Close Encounters a group exhibition at Gippsland Art Gallery. Molinari has been the recipient of the Graeme Hildebrant Foundation Travel Grant (2014) which allowed her to undertake residencies in both New York (USA) and in Florence (Italy), the Fiona Myer Award (2012) and the Majlis Encouragement Award (2012). Her work is held in the Gippsland Art Gallery Collection, The Stirling Collective and The Art Students League of New York, USA.

DOWNLOAD BIO / CV (PDF)

JOIN PREVIEW LIST

Collation 2021
oil on panel, framed
61cm x 122cm framed size 76 x 137cm
$6,500 AUD

Reflected 2021
oil on panel, framed
61cm x 122cm framed size 76 x 137cm
$6,500 AUD

Owl with Spherical Mirrors 2021
oil on panel, framed
51cm x 61cm framed size 66 x 76cm
$4,000 AUD

Still Life Study 1 2021
charcoal & white chalk on velour paper, unframed
20cm x 25cm
$750 AUD

Untitled installation 2021
Mirror, glass, taxidermy-bird-pelts, plaster-resin, polyurethane, wax, acrylic
45cm x 60cm x 40cm

Untitled (Glass Domes) 2020
charcoal & white chalk on velour paper, unframed
48cm x 70cm
$2,000 AUD

Cautionary 2020
oil on panel
90cm x 60cm
$5,000 AUD

Untitled (Still Life) 2020
charcoal & white chalk on velour paper, unframed
48cm x 70cm
$2,000 AUD

Collective 2019
oil on aluminium
60cm x 60cm
$4,000 AUD

Parakeet and Bones 2019
oil on panel
30cm x 40cm
$2,000 AUD

Bourke's Parrot with Beetles 2019
oil on panel
30cm x 40cm
$2,000 AUD

Parakeet in Glass 2019
oil on panel
30cm x 40cm
Reserved

Skull and Beetles 2019
oil on panel
30cm x 40cm
$2,000 AUD

Siski Finch and Possum Banksia 2019
oil on panel
20cm x 25cm
$1,200 AUD

Rest 2019
oil on aluminium
60cm x 60cm
$4,000 AUD

Zebra Finch and Beetle Under Glass 2019
oil on panel
20cm x 25cm
$1,200 AUD

Fate 2018
oil on aluminium
60cm x 60cm
$4,000 AUD

Birds and Bones 2018
oil on aluminium
96cm x 120cm in artist's studio
$6,500 AUD

Remnants 2018
oil on aluminium
96cm x 120cm in artist's studio
$6,500 AUD

Temporality 2018
oil on aluminium
96cm x 120cm in artist's studio
$6,500 AUD

Ars Moriendi 2017
oil on board
50cm x 70cm
$3,500 AUD