The paintings, some immaculately rendered, others delightfully loose, along with the prints and drawings, are presented chronologically to chart his career, its shifts and importantly personal insights gained through art making. The title of the exhibition, Surrender and Catch, is based on American sociologist Kurt Wolff's 1970s theory of being open to what reveals itself in art making, surrendering to the process of self-discovery, and catching the knowledge it generates. It has an affinity with the surrealist approach of allowing the unconscious to inform imagery.
Harris was born in 1956 in Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand. He relocated to Melbourne in 1982 in order to distance himself from a difficult childhood and to embark on a career as an artist. Death and pandemics The exhibition begins with expressionist paintings of the later 1980s where there are traces of influence from his teacher at the Victorian College of Arts, Peter Booth.
The pace and tenor changes radically with the series of 14 abstract and geometric paintings, the Stations (1989), produced in response to the death of fellow members of the gay community from the AIDS pandemic. The title references the biblical narrative of Christ walking to his death in the Stations of the Cross. The Crucifixion, in a reduced palette of black, white and cream, shows the close influences of fellow New Zealander, Colin McCahon and his Fourteen Stations of the Cross (1966).
Harris revisited the theme during the COVID pa.
