Stripes 6 – Open Doors

Celebrated South Australian contemporary painter Brenton Drechsler makes his highly anticipated return to our beachside gallery with his first solo exhibition since the announcement of his joint representation by Michael Reid Northern Beaches and Southern Highlands. Stripes 6 – Open Doors arrives after his star turn in the 2025 edition of Michael Reid Sydney’s year-end group survey, Painting Now.

“This new body of paintings shifts from foreign urban streetscapes and vintage vehicles to the interiors of my own home, as well as spaces encountered during my travels,” says Drechsler, whose global roaming gives way to interior scenes steeped in personal valence.

Once again nesting his signature green-and-white stripe within his pictures – a recurring graphic motif he likens to a kind of painterly proxy – Drechsler sees painting as a way to inscribe a sense of self into the spaces he inhabits, whether far-flung, familiar or festooned with objects that suggest an imminent gathering of friends. “The works build on the cinematic quality of earlier paintings while focusing more closely on intimate, lived-in environments, characterised by intensified brushwork and an experimental pastel colour palette.”

For all enquiries, please email sophienolan@michaelreid.com.au