Daryl Perry
Daryl Perry (b. Fiji; based in Sydney) is a contemporary painter, sculptor, and curator whose practice explores perception, memory, and socio-political tension through layered, gestural mark-making and material experimentation. Drawing from lived experience and cultural hybridity, his work often reflects a raw emotional energy that invites viewers into moments of quiet intensity or vibrant unrest.Daryl began his formal arts education at Meadowbank TAFE in 2005, later completing an Advanced Diploma of Visual Arts at West Wollongong TAFE in 2021. He is currently studying at the National Art School (NAS), where his commitment to both personal practice and community-building continues to evolve. Previously, Daryl founded and ran 130 Art Studios in Wollongong—an independent gallery and residency space that supported emerging artists and experimental projects until its closure due to building issues.His approach to artmaking is paralleled by his curatorial work, including projects Synaesthesia (2027), and the Short Circuit exhibition series, which showcases first and second-year NAS students across multiple Sydney venues. He is also developing PostNAS, a platform that fosters connection, visibility, and professional growth for recent NAS alumni.Currently re-establishing his personal studio practice, Daryl continues to build new ways for artists to connect with audiences while creating space for introspection, disruption, and transformation in his own work.
Squiggler
At the heart of Daryl Perry’s practice is a lifelong passion for drawing—especially the simple, intuitive act of squiggling. For Perry, drawing is where everything begins: a space of freedom, immediacy, and emotional release. Whether rough, restless, or precise, his lines are charged with energy, tracing thought and feeling in real time. It’s not just a process—it’s a language all on its own.
Studio
Since closing my last studio in Wollongong, I’ve been working out of my space at the National Art School and making it work in the meantime. It’s not always ideal, but the momentum’s still there. I’m hoping to set up a new studio in Sydney soon—somewhere to settle back in, make a proper mess, and get into a more consistent flow with painting and making again.
Figuration & Abstraction
Much of my work falls somewhere between figuration and abstraction. I’m drawn to raw, gestural mark-making and how it can hold memory, mood, or something felt but hard to name. Faces and figures sometimes show up, but they often blur, dissolve, or fall apart—I'm more interested in capturing a fleeting feeling than a fixed identity. I work in layers, and the process is pretty instinctive. It’s not about getting it perfect—it’s about finding an emotional charge in the mark, the colour, or the surface itself.
The Spear Tackle
Acrylic and mixed media on canvasThis work draws from a personal memory of being spear tackled during a rugby league match. In that split-second moment—lifted off the ground and flipped mid-air—there’s no pain, just a strange clarity. Adrenaline takes over, time distorts, and your body is suspended in a kind of slow-motion free fall. Rather than depict the tackle itself, the painting captures that in-between state: disorientation, velocity, and the feeling of being completely out of control. Figures break apart, overlap, and dissolve into layers of motion and memory, reflecting the chaos and surreal stillness of the experience.
The Scrum #2
Oil on board
This painting’s about the weight and rhythm of a rugby scrum—not just the physical force, but the mess of bodies, boots, and repetition. I wasn’t aiming to get it anatomically right, more just to capture how it feels. Everything’s tight, tense, and moving as one. Over time, the group stops feeling like individual players and turns into this big, shifting shape. It started to feel almost like a landscape, just made of muscle, colour, and pressure.
Connection to place
My work often reflects a deep sense of disconnection and in-betweenness shaped by my experience of migration. Born in Fiji and raised in Australia, I draw on the emotional weight of cultural limbo—never feeling fully at home here, nor fully returned when visiting there. Through layered imagery and expressive mark-making, my practice becomes a search for grounding—a way to map memory, belonging, and the invisible threads that link identity to place.
Makitau
My uncle prepares a meal by scraping coconut into a bowl.
Activating Exhhibitions
There’s an ongoing drive to create spaces where music and visual art can fuse, born from a love of both and a belief in their shared power to move people. From intimate exhibitions with live sound to multi-sensory events like Synaesthesia, the focus has been on building environments where rhythm, colour, and emotion interact in real time. It’s about more than collaboration—it’s about crafting experiences that resonate across senses and stay with you long after you’ve left the space.
