Oliver Abbott in 2026

’Guide’
19.09. - 17.10.2026

Dominik Mersch Gallery is pleased to present a new body of work by Australian emerging artist Oliver Abbott that extends his construction of an expansive virtual world.

“‘Guide’ continues an ongoing investigation into a synthesised world. I glean fragments of architecture, infrastructure and landscape, rebuild and reconfigure them, and navigate the new space that emerges. The fragments accumulate into a kind of city inside 3D software. I think of this workflow as a replication of the photographic process, one that includes the creation of the subject, and where painting acts as a manual recreation of a photochemical process.

This show is a series of snapshots, virtual photography rendered in paint. The process of painting and the history it carries, lend a verisimilitude to the renderings, acting as a binding agent for the disparate places I’ve collected from life, film, books and memory. I’m interested in the slippery boundary between real and fake, and the trust we place in those that guide us.”

– Oliver Abbott, 2026