There there brings together a new series of large-scale paintings by North-East Victorian artist Mat Vaughan. Based in the alpine village of Wandiligong, painting for Vaughan inhabits the space between. Each painting is a conversation, a negotiation, yet with persistence and time, a shift occurs, something clicks and the painting speaks back. There is connection and arrival, and for Vaughan this moment is there. For Vaughan, the phrase There there carries a dual weight: it soothes, it signals, it seeks. It can calm, distress or call attention to something just beyond reach. His works offer the viewer the space to step into a moment where the world seems to stop, when one’s breathing comes to the fore and one lives precisely in the present. Just as they are created, they offer space—both physical and emotional—for the viewer to slow down, to stay and to get lost. As touch offers a physical sensation, one’s interaction with line, form, colour and scale can lead to a metaphysical sense of comfort.
Mat Vaughan, In someone else's sky, 2025, detail, oil on canvas, 200 x 400cm.