“Although flesh is not the defining characteristic of what it means to be human, it does symbolise the physical bodies we inhabit and brings a sometimes uncomfortable awareness of our own corporeality. My paintings reveal the human body in its freest form, untethered from the rigid structure of the skeleton. The forms within the artworks have undergone a profound metamorphosis via extensive use of the liquify tool in Photoshop. In this way, the flesh, (perhaps even more so than the software, or the paint), becomes the medium through which the image is constructed.”
Megan Archer is a painter and collage artist from Aotearoa/New Zealand, currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland. She graduated in 2010 from the University of Canterbury’s Ilam School of Fine Arts with a BFA majoring in painting.
Her painting practice reveals an ongoing compulsion to paint flesh, whilst also exploring the symbiotic relationship between humans and technology, and the increasingly blurred lines between analog and digital modes of production.
Abroad, she has exhibited in Berlin, London and Melbourne. Recent exhibitions include ‘Malleable’, Scott Lawrie Gallery, Auckland (2022), ‘Solo Show’, {Suite} Gallery, Wellington, 2020, and ‘In the Flesh’, Corban Estate, Auckland, 2020.
She is represented by {Suite} Gallery in Auckland and Wellington.
Contact: megan.archer@gmail.com