I first came across Hilary Herrmann’s work about ten years ago in Byron Bay where she lives and frequently exhibits. She has been staging solo exhibitions on the north coast for more than ten years and has participated in group exhibitions as far north as Brisbane and as far south as Melbourne, taking in Sydney on the way through!

A finalist in the Portia Geach Prize, the Blake Prize and the Lismore Regional Gallery Portrait Prize to name a few, Hilary has also won prizes in other regional exhibitions and awards, and most recently, her painting came first in the Coraki Art Show.

Hilary’s work is in the first instance ethereal, but there is a tension always between what is happening on the canvas and what is suggested off it. Her subjects often appear as though they are characters on an other worldly, unknowable stage that we as viewers, can only guess at.

It is riveting and mystical, and compels us to follow into our own imaginations to find the source of her fantastical narrative.