Each month, Art Show Factory shines a spotlight on one Australian artist, aiming to enrich connections between artists, audiences, and our creative community.

This October, Meet…

Location: Meanjin

Medium: Acrylic Paint

Meanjin based artist Cosmikayla (Mikayla Innes) is sitting high on her balcony studio painting day in, day out. Originally from Broome, WA, my work is driven by bold colours and storytelling.

My pieces are about breaking down overwhelming emotions through a focus on smaller mundane subject matter. I can’t often articulate an emotion until after the painting is complete. When I paint, I always sit down with a feeling and plan everything in the painting to communicate that feeling as loudly as possible.

I paint everyday. I also paint really fast. I regularly paint from afternoon until super late at night (just ask my roommate). I also just think about painting constantly - colour is always in the back of my mind and everywhere I look I’m always thinking ‘how could I mix that colour? What would that look like on my palette?’

Before I painted, I was obsessed with film and studied it for one year at university. Passion for film translated heavily into the development of my style as a visual artist - colours, composition and object symbolism are some elements of my work that are influenced by film. Mis-en-scene is an integral concept in filmmaking that I lean on heavily. Meaning ‘placement on stage,’ mis-en-scene is literally everything you see in the frame. It means that everything is intentionally arranged to tell the story without anyone having to say a word.

Having more awareness of ‘mis-en-scene' of my paintings definitely changed my artstyle. I think this is something myself and my friends and family have literally seen evolve as I’ve been in more exhibitions and pushing myself to create more. To distinguish my style I also started to repeat motifs that resonated with me - billiards balls, bugs, doilies, and texts I use all the time. I resonate especially deeply with bugs, there’s one in all of my pieces.

In terms of what’s next, I have a few local exhibitions (stay posted) but what’s most exciting is that I’ve been quietly working hard on a body of solo work - it will explore the feelings of social outsiderism and otherness in a digital world and I can’t wait to share it with everyone very soon.