Tim Merrett takes possession of art history as his creative birthright, unabashedly appropriating images from past masters and bringing them into tension with contemporary experience. Past and present ebb and flow on his canvases, taking arts historical images and inserting them as “resting places” within areas of bold color or salvaged objects.
The bookends or surrounds of found objects or fields of vibrant colours is an attempt to disrupt the painted image from continuing to exist in its peaceful historical context. The resulting totality challenges our perception of history, time, beauty and mortality where “then” and “now” are locked into a relationship we ourselves, as viewers, must balance.