Sutton Gallery is pleased to present Every Picture a new exhibition by Jackson Slattery. Every Picture takes its name from a series of popular all age dance parties that took place in Melbourne from 1991-2000. The artist explains these parties as his first experience of what could be described as a ‘democratic space’. In this exhibition Slattery discusses the idea of democracy with regards to the image; sentimental subject matter and openly appropriated imagery are brought together with a blithe indifference. Slattery’s methodological approach mirrors this idea of the ‘democratic’ with areas of abstraction, photorealism and collage reduced to their barest formal elements. This body of work attempts to find a balance between the sincere and indifferent, both conceptually and formally.

Celebrated for his meticulous watercolours, this exhibition extends the artist’s practice by shifting to the use of oils. This new medium has allowed more freedom as Slattery states, ‘one of the main aims for this body of work was to work on the compositions over a long period of time, constantly adding and subtracting’. Once a mark is made on watercolour paper it cannot be erased, whereas oil has the ability to be worked over a long period of time, changing, editing and adding over many months and additionally, at a larger scale.