Michelle Hanlin’s new exhibition, Hand-Painted, uses improvised and rudimentary printing techniques within her image-making process. Drawing inspiration from the ad hoc aesthetics and textures of constructed landscapes alongside the historical vernacular of printmaking, Hanlin’s compositions provoke a dialogue with the spontaneity of mono-printing and the unintentional, often unintended visual narratives that emerge from the repair, concealment, and embellishment of built environments.

With a nuanced approach to surface and process, Hanlin’s paintings evoke a sense of palimpsest, where layers of colour and texture simultaneously conceal and reveal themselves, suggesting histories overwritten that persist beneath the surface. The gestural and textural qualities in her work echo primitive methods of fabric printing, reminiscent of mass-produced block-printed tea towels and makeshift signage, thus bridging the gap between industrial production and handmade objects. This interplay underscores a thematic convergence between the industrial and the handmade, where repetition, imperfection, and adaptation are central.

Hand-Painted extends its inquiry into the performative aspect of display. Hanlin recontextualizes the painting as an object within a broader spatial dialogue, integrating frames, stands, and easels as essential elements of the composition. This strategic placement transforms the paintings into a meta-narrative—paintings within paintings—that expands and complicates the viewer’s engagement with the artwork.

Hanlin’s first solo exhibition at Gallery 9 was in 2007, with ten to date. She studied Sculpture at Sydney College of the Arts and was awarded a first-class honours degree. She has exhibited interstate and internationally in group exhibitions.

Her work is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, MCA, Artbank, Wollongong City Gallery, and numerous private collections around Australia and internationally.