Vanity by Murray Fredericks

Award-winning Australian artist Murray Fredericks commences a new cycle in his 14-year Salt project with his latest series of abstract photographic landscapes from Lake Eyre - Kati Thanda.

Revisiting South Australia’s vast salt lake equipped with a bike, tent and camera, Murray Fredericks continues his intrepid pursuit of capturing through photography the overwhelming emptiness and powerful emotional resonance of remote land and sky. Camping alone for weeks at a time, Fredericks’ spiritual and mental encounters are encapsulated in his immersive images which have mesmerised audiences across the globe for more than a decade.

© Murray Fredericks, Mirror 11, 2017, digital pigment print, 120 x 155 cm. Courtesy of the artist and ARC ONE Gallery.
© Murray Fredericks, Mirror 11, 2017, digital pigment print, 120 x 155 cm. Courtesy of the artist and ARC ONE Gallery.

In this exhibition, Vanity, Fredericks interrupts his endless and ethereal horizons for which he has become known through the intervention of mirrors. Rather than employing the mirror as a symbol of self-reflection, Fredericks redirects our gaze away from ourselves and into the immense environment. His translations of the landscape verge on otherworldly; mirrors float gently like windows or portals, offering a dual experience of looking both into another realm and out, as the lake’s glass-like surface reflects an infinite space above.

© Murray Fredericks, Mirror 17, 2017, digital pigment print, 120 x 155 cm. Courtesy of the artist and ARC ONE Gallery.
© Murray Fredericks, Mirror 17, 2017, digital pigment print, 120 x 155 cm. Courtesy of the artist and ARC ONE Gallery.

By removing our reflection from the picture entirely, Fredericks subtly questions the narcissistic qualities of the human condition in the age of the Anthropocene, wherein human activity has become the overriding force on climate and the natural world. He casts our image adrift, so that we might be consumed by the phenomena of light, colour and space on a visceral level, engaging another stratum of consciousness that echoes the artist’s own experience of living in solitude on the lake. In Vanity, Fredericks’ meditations on the immeasurable and unknown void that encompasses us offer a space in which to escape ourselves, and to pause in a moment of pure transcendence.

© Murray Fredericks, Mirror 16, 2017, digital pigment print, 120 x 155 cm. Courtesy of the artist and ARC ONE Gallery.
© Murray Fredericks, Mirror 16, 2017, digital pigment print, 120 x 155 cm. Courtesy of the artist and ARC ONE Gallery.

About Murray Fredericks

Murray Fredericks is an internationally acclaimed and multi-award winning photographer and filmmaker. Fredericks has exhibited widely, including Inside the Dome (DYE2) (with Tom Schutzinger), Geelong Gallery, 2015-16; SALT, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, 2016; a major Australian landscape survey exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, 2012; and two solo shows at the Australian Centre for Photography, 2010 and 2015 respectively. His work has been acquired by prestigious public and private collections internationally, including the National Gallery of Victoria; Australian Parliament House; Australian National Portrait Gallery; Artbank; The Sir Elton John Collection; Macquarie Bank; Commonwealth Bank; The Myer Collection; The Valentino Collection; and a number of regional galleries across Australia. Fredericks has been the recipient of numerous awards and is a regular finalist in Australia’s top photography prizes. In 2015, he received the People’s Choice Award for the Bowness Photography Prize, was runner up in the Head-On Festival Landscape Prize and a finalist in the JUWS Photography Award. His first documentary film, Salt, for which he was cinematographer and co-director, won twelve major international awards, played over 50 festivals and was screened on the ABC and PBS in the USA.
 

 

© Murray Fredericks, Mirror 25, 2017, digital pigment print, 120 x 155 cm. Courtesy of the artist and ARC ONE Gallery.
© Murray Fredericks, Mirror 25, 2017, digital pigment print, 120 x 155 cm. Courtesy of the artist and ARC ONE Gallery.

This exhibition is part of CLIMARTE’s ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2017 - a festival of exhibitions and events harnessing the creative power of the Arts to inform, engage, and inspire action on climate change. 

Upcoming Events Submit an Event

April

Canberra: 27 Feb until 20 July 2025. The National Library has invited renowned Australian photojournalist Mike Bowers to select some of his favourite images from the Fairfax Photo Archive.

Brisbane: Until 13 July 2025. Amateur Brisbane photographer Alfred Henrie Elliott (1870-1954) extraordinary images lay dormant for decades until they were discovered only recently. This exhibition is curated by seven Brisbane photographers.

Sydney: Until 31 Dec 2025. PIX, Australia’s first pictorial news weekly, is brought to life in this exhibition, showcasing its archived images and stories for the very first time.

May

Sydney: 15 May – 19 October. Showcasing 100 incredible images, this remarkable exhibition offers a window into the astonishing variety of life on our planet – and the critical importance of preserving it.

Perth: From 31 May – 28 Sept 2025. Featuring 85 works from three major series – Deep Springs, Overpass, and Cross Country – the exhibition spans twelve years of Contis’s evolving photographic practice.

June

Melbourne: June 5 - 16 August 2025. The explore the history of Alan Adler's photobooths and their cultural significance, alongside visual stories told by the community.

Adelaide: 7 June – 16 August. Drawn from the National Portrait Gallery collection, this photographic exhibition captures the experience of lives lived through dance.

Melbourne: 7 June – 31 August. Protest is a Creative Act seeks to address issues around the body, sexuality, race, national identity and the environment.

Canberra; June 19 - July 12 2025. The River Report is a five-day map of when a normal Yitilal (wet season) turned into a major disaster and the local inhabitants were once again displaced.