Uncertain Truths

Following its celebrated debut at our flagship Eora/Sydney gallery, Uncertain Truths by Scott Perkins is now showing at Michael Reid Southern Highlands in a special presentation timed to coincide with the announcement of his representation by Michael Reid Galleries.

Ushering in a striking development in the artist’s visual vocabulary, two new works – densely layered forest scenes rendered in stark, atmospheric monochrome – have been created exclusively for the Berrima iteration of Uncertain Truths, extending the contemplative seascapes of the original series into a deeper, terrestrial register: more intricate, more elusive, and equally arresting.

Perkins’s landscapes defy easy geography. Tasmania, the Kimberley, coastal Italy and New Zealand are invoked but never concretely mapped. Instead, they are pared back to their essences — distilled through fine lines, tonal washes and silvery gradients. What at first seems minimal — austere, even — gradually reveals itself as a web of quiet intricacies. Cloud banks shimmer with granular light; horizons dissolve into ambiguity; mirrored waters and shadowed terrains teeter on the edge of the surreal.

The series includes works displayed within bespoke, portal-like light boxes — illuminated structures that dissolve the boundaries between photograph, sculpture and architecture. Meticulously crafted from movement-resistant timber, these frames become containers of extraordinary stillness, drawing the viewer into an immersive, almost meditative encounter with the image.

To discuss works from the series, please email southernhighlands@michaelreid.com.au