The universal questions that Michael Berry asks and the pictures he paints are the same exploration. His life and his art are linked at the deepest possible level - they are an inseparable whole.
He denies psychological security through images of oneself and others, and in his paintings he avoids the recognisable, including his own fronto signature, that add to and promote the feeling of safety through recognition in the viewer. He maintains that the 'self' is subject-bound.
Berry speaks often about the limitations of thought - that it can only measure and compare - and he maintains that if thought in human beings functions technically, there is no psychological pain.
When it comes to art, the integrity of the technical visual language, which is an ongoing, moment-to-moment inquiry for him, is of ultimate importance.
"Great drawing skill is essential to fine painting," he says. "How else to bring together the relationship between line, symbols and colour on a two-dimensional sheet of paper or canvas, and create a corridor of light and space in which it all exists."
"There is no insight without questioning, and one cannot be free without seeing one's limitations. The art itself is not what is important - it is the challenges one sets and the questions asked while doing it that truly matter. Insight arising from those questions will bring about insight in the work."
"What is actually happening without overlaying my opinions and all my 'knowledge' - which make up the 'self'? Perhaps therein lies pure perception."
In 'Symphonic Space 1' the lyricism is exemplified because the light violet is also the base of some of the other colours. A painting in harmony with itself - yet harmony with opposition - is what he set out to achieve."
The key to Berry's intriguingly complex and multi-faceted work is that the negative and the positive space are of equal importance. He has been criticised for using too much colour, but contends that the shortcoming is in the mind's eye of the critic.
"I reduced the palette to black and white for many years - the aim is to paint and to draw with equally spontaneous flair."
Berry is a perceptive artist whose only concern is for the next great breakthrough in painting, and to that end he insists that each piece speak for itself.
He has exhibited widely throughout Australia, and his paintings, drawings, and sculptures are in many public, private and corporate collections.
From 'Selected Contemporary Artists of

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