Mish enjoys taking the filters off
While minimalism continues to be one of the hottest global design trends, Tasmanian artist Mish Meijers admits her art is more about maximalism. Meijers uses an eclectic mix of sculpture, drawing, painting, ceramics, digital media, performance and installation to bring her ideas to life, creating bold, colourful artworks which reference everything from pop culture to politics.
“I guess I’m sort of a maximalist in that I follow my nose and what medium speaks best for what I’m interested in,’’ Meijers explains of her work.
Her latest solo exhibition – Low To No Filter – which runs at Hobart’s Bett Gallery from November 25 to December 17, will feature a series of new paintings depicting theatrical gatherings of figures in public spaces, as she examines the ways we inhabit public spaces and how this affects our behaviours.
Meijers grew up in Melbourne and longed to be an artist from the age of 12 – she always loved drawing and says she was fortunate that her talent was fostered through some great art teachers.
She moved to Tasmania to attend art school in the early 1990s and never left.
“I wasn’t supposed to stay,’’ says Meijers, who has exhibited widely in Australia as well as in New York, Indonesia and Paris, and has been a finalist for various awards, including The Glover Prize.
“But I fell in love with the island – there’s nowhere else in Australia I’d rather be.’’
Meijers admits being an artist can be a “definite slog” at times – artists are often misunderstood, there’s no set wage, and there’s lots of intense, solitary work involved.
“For me, it’s very much about ‘you’ve got something to say, you need to say it’,’’ says Meijers, who works from a studio in New Norfolk and celebrates her 50th birthday today.
“It becomes part of filtering everything that’s happening in the world, it’s my way of coping with all the information.
“I get quite affected by politics and so forth, so this is a way to alleviate it and get it out.’’
Meijers says working across a range of mediums gives her freedom to express herself in different ways, and such versatility also enables her keep her artistic fire burning and work as part of various collaborations as well as on solo projects.
She says people’s response to her work is what she loves most about creating art.
“When people are standing in front of a finished piece of work, they bring all their own history coming to see it,’’ she explains.
“And they can stand there and have a conversation with someone else, who is bringing their history as well.”
And it’s actually those conversations “in front of the work, about the work” that Meijers says keep her excited about making art.
See Mish Meijers’ new solo exhibition, Low To No Filter, at Hobart’s Bett Gallery, from November 25 to December 17.