Paintings in Residence, 2025.
Lawson Flats, Perth, Australia.

Paintings in Residence

Benjamin Barretto’s ‘Painting paintings’ are a decade-long exploration in which artworks become both action and artefact. Oil paint is manipulated directly between the surface of two canvases, blending and transferring pigment through repeated movement. The resulting surfaces register the passage of time, pressure, and contact in gradated fields of colour.

This procedural approach is central to Barretto’s wider practice, which spans painting, sound, video, performance and sculpture. He often incorporates structures drawn from experimental music—feedback, phasing, and looping— using them as conceptual engines to destabilise material certainties. The result is a practice that dwells in the spaces between image and object, improvisation and control.

Born in Perth in 1985, Barretto holds Honours from Curtin University and was a visiting scholar at École Nationale Supérieur d’Art in Dijon, France. He has exhibited widely across the US, Europe, and Australia, with work held in private collections internationally. He now lives in Melbourne and is represented by Animal House Fine Arts.

Lawson Flats is located in Boorloo, the heart of Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land and pay our respects to their clan, kin, and ancestors. We also pay our respects to all First Nations people who call Boorloo their home today.