Meet the young artist with a love for perspective

INTRODUCING ARTIST KARRI MCPHERSON

Soon after being born in Hong Kong, Karri McPherson immigrated to Australia with her family, living in the Gold Coast and Roma for the next 18 years.

After graduating from high school, she spent three months travelling South East Asia before moving to Toowoomba to pursue a career in the arts.

She is currently completing a Bachelor of Creative Art at the University of Southern Queensland and describes her artwork as an exploration into perspective.

“I’m fascinated by the capacity of the human mind and the ways in which we perceive our surroundings,” she said, adding that her current practice aims to explore the manipulation of immediate space by toying with reality.

“In other words, I’m interested in distorting environments through perspective.

“Geometric shapes and forms provide me with a platform to investigate the essence of depth and the qualities that trick us into perceiving multiple dimensions on a flat surface.”

Karri said she uses acrylic paints to create her work because of the paint’s fast-drying nature.

“It allows me to produce my artwork in a much shorter timeframe.”

She has worked on a range of surfaces, from canvas and linen, to wooden panels and, recently, walls.

“I really enjoy the dialogue my work shares with the architecture in a space,” she said.

Her visit to a Yayoi Kusama installation at MONA two years ago encouraged her to translate her paintings into murals.

“I felt inspired by her work. I enjoyed exploring the dynamic my canvas works can share with an in situ painting.”

Karri finds inspiration in her surroundings, with different locations inspiring new compositions and colour combinations in her work.

For Karri, colour plays an important role in life, having the capacity to change our mood and tap into our emotions.

“It has the power to convey or conceal a message and to morph the emotions of whoever experiences it. It’s also important because of its universality – it has the ability to develop communication despite any cultural or lingual barriers.”

If Karri could create a painting for anyone in the world, it would be for her grandmother who passed away three years ago.

“In her painting, I would use soft pastels and purple tones to reflect her sweet and caring nature, encompassing her gentle personality within the subtle nuances between the tones. I would incorporate different purple hues throughout the painting to celebrate her love of lavender (her favourite flower).”

When asked about favourite project so far, Karrie said she had a very rewarding experience earlier this year when she painted a bar mural at ‘Bar Wunder’.

“I loved the outcome of that project,” she added.

Karri said her current series of works for her exhibition A Matter of Form have challenged her to generate compositions and colour combinations which insinuate additional dimensions on a flat surface.

Her exhibition will be held at the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery from October 13 to November 11, with the official opening of the exhibition scheduled for 1.30pm on October 14.