DAYS is a new body of work in drawing on handmade paper and embroidery made as part of Maryanne Coutts’ daily practice. DAYS reflects the events of her life as she moves between Sydney, where she lives and works, and Melbourne, where many family members live.
“As I set myself systems to work in, I find that the unpredictability of what might come next in life leads the work into places I hadn’t anticipated, setting challenges and demanding invention to keep the work rolling. In Melbourne, I work each day on an old piece of brocade that is disintegrating as I work; the race to repair is competing with decay and producing something that I didn’t know was coming… and I still don’t know where it’s going.”
Maryanne Coutts is an artist who draws every day and is the Head of Drawing at the National Art School. She sustains various concurrent long-form, open-ended drawing projects through which she seeks to hold and represent, in handmade images, personal expression, and encounters in our ever-changing world. Her projects involve trees, clothing, bodies, news media, and urban environments. Maryanne Coutts is represented by Australian Galleries in Sydney and Melbourne.
Image: Maryanne Coutts, DAYS, 2024, installation views at DRAW Space. Courtesy of the artist. Photographs: Gary Warner.