Miranda Skoczek is inspired by opulence. Not the kind you see in lifestyles of the rich and famous, though it might be. Nor the sort you find in the troves of the world’s museums and places of worship – though again it could be. But opulence is just as easily found in the slums of India during Holi, when the streets become such a riot of colour and adornment that the harsh living conditions are momentarily overshadowed. For Skoczek, opulence doesn’t equal luxury so much as joy and the pursuit of it. 

Architecture, pop culture, fashion, religious iconography, antiquities, art history, traditional arts and crafts, music, travel, mysticism, talismans, interior design and customary rituals – these are just some of the influences that shape Skoczek’s practice. Her paintings are spacial and emotional responses to everything she consumes and surrounds herself with, informed by a theoretical understanding of colour and composition. 

Spirit and Matter, her most recent body of work, was created during Melbourne’s protracted COVID-19 second wave while Skoczek also juggled home-schooling as a single mother. Though the lockdown was brutal, it confirmed her home as an oasis – an extension of herself and identity, where her dreams are actualised and restored. This sense of containment has infused the new works with contemplations on time, space, change, transience, history and meaning. They are positive and mood lifting, and as full of contrasts as the artist herself – simultaneously materialistic and spiritual, sometimes physical, sometimes soft and lyrical, intuitive and feminine, strong and self-assured. 

Miranda Skoczek graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art – Painting from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2004, and won the College’s painting prize the same year. She also holds a Diploma in Visual Art – Painting from Victoria University of Technology (2001) and a Diploma of Applied Arts and Graphic Design from Canberra Institute of Technology (1997). 

Commissioned by Edwina Corlette Gallery, December 2020.