Where We Sit

Where We Sit, from Naarm/Melbourne based painter Lily Platts sees her return to Michael Reid Southern Highlands with a suite of paintings depicting her perennial muse, the chair. Exploring the incidental compositions she comes across in everyday life, such as: on the side of the road, at garage sales, in op shops and online marketplaces. These everyday objects become the starting point for the work. She explores materiality throughout the series, expanding her practice into ceramics while returning to painting with oils. Working across these materials has brought experimentation and developing new techniques back into her process.

The artist is often asked, ‘Why chairs?’ She has been drawn to the motif for many years, particularly because of the sense of humanity that everyday objects can hold. Chairs can reveal something about the people, places and moments they have been part of, even when we know nothing about their history.
“We live in a world where we are constantly surrounded by new things, and where objects can feel easily replaceable and disposable.’

Through these paintings, Platts is interested in slowing
this down and considering the value we place on the objects around us. The works invite us to look again at everyday things and think about the memories, histories and experiences they might hold.

Platts has been a finalist in the 2025 BAMM Biennale Portrait Prize, 2023 National Emerging Art Prize and the Grace Cossington Smith Art Prize. She was a recipient of the 2020 Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship after graduating with Honours from RMIT. For priority access, please register your interest.