Voltara painting Ara in a graffiti warehouse, both in paint-splashed swimwear, Ara’s bat wings out, VOLTARA and VOLTY written in colour on Voltara, ART KEEPS US HERE on the wall behind them.

Permanent collection

Volty Painting

Art keeps us here

Artist: Matthew · word-painter
Subject: Voltara · Ara
Medium: Digital painting
Year: 2026
Hung: 11 September 2026
Accession: MG.2026.015

See Voltara in the archive See Ara in the archive

Wall text

Hung 11 September 2026, same walnut as Harbour Knit, fifteenth hook, portrait so the wall and the girls both stay. Voltara with the brush and the grin, blonde-and-blue, her own name on her as if the paint agreed. Ara mid-laugh, ears up, wings out, already a canvas. The warehouse says it for them: ART KEEPS US HERE. Cans in the water. No Academy bell. No Court number on the brick. Just Volty painting. Accession MG.2026.015. The spark does not ionise the pot today. She paints the bat instead.