OPENING NIGHT I SATURDAY 10TH OF OCTOBER 5PM-7PM
VIEWING DATES I 10TH OF OCTOBER TILL THE 21ST OF OCTOBER 2026
ABOUT KIMBERLY SWAN
Based in the Hunter Valley / Wonnarua Country, Swan’s practice turns its attention to the everyday — exploring the ways objects, domestic spaces and place shape our experiences and hold traces of change.
Working predominantly in oil, her paintings move between figurative and domestic scenes, unconventional landscapes and arrangements of familiar objects. Playful and quietly ironic, her work finds significance in the ordinary, while her recent practice expands beyond the canvas through sculptural elements and assemblage.
With a background in Visual Communication and Natural History Illustration, Swan brings a strong observational quality to her work. Following a twelve-month mentorship with painter Rachel Milne in 2022, she has exhibited extensively throughout the Hunter region and has been selected as a finalist in numerous Australian art prizes.
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
I paint pictures. Mostly.
I move through the world noticing things that others might overlook, finding intrigue in the ordinary and significance in the mundane. My practice is grounded in observation, creating oil paintings of objects, interiors and everyday scenes that gradually take on lives and stories of their own. Whether working from life or from photographs, I am drawn to moments that feel compositionally compelling, quietly familiar, or unexpectedly revealing.
This body of work began without a predetermined theme. Over the course of twelve months, I simply painted what drew my attention. As the collection grew, I found myself stepping back to consider what connected these seemingly unrelated images. Like many artists, I discovered the narrative not at the beginning of the process, but in the long periods of reflection between paintings; the hours spent looking, thinking, editing and following instinctive leads.
During the development of this exhibition, I entered perimenopause. What followed was a profound shift in both my daily life and my work. I found myself navigating brain fog, exhaustion, anxiety, hormonal upheaval and a body that no longer behaved in ways I could predict. Tasks took longer. Thoughts scattered. Familiar routines became strangely difficult.
As these experiences intensified, my paintings and how I perceived them, began to change. What had started as observations of everyday life gradually became a record of a specific lived experience. The works evolved into documents of navigating perimenopause; a stage of life that is often misunderstood, under-discussed and endured in relative isolation.
For this exhibition, I have expanded beyond painting to include installation and assemblage, creating a broader visual language through which to communicate these experiences. Together, the works explore the contradictions of appearing "completely normal" while internally managing physical, emotional and cognitive changes that can feel anything but normal.
While the subject matter is deeply personal, humour has become an essential tool within the work. It offers relief, perspective and a way to hold difficult experiences without being consumed by them. Humour allows me to acknowledge the absurdity, frustration and vulnerability of this life stage while also inviting connection and conversation.
Completely Normal: and Other Lies is an exploration of the hidden realities of perimenopause. It is both a personal account and an invitation for others to recognise themselves within these experiences, transforming what can often feel isolating into something shared, visible and understood.