OPENING NIGHT EVENT: SATURDAY THE 10TH OF SEPTEMBER 6PM TILL 9PM!
Showing Dates: Friday the 2nd September till Wednesday the 28th of September.
With flat compositions and framed, still subjects, the works of Britt Ferns and Giorgia Bel echo similarities. The parallels of their philosophies exist in the evocation of a minimal realism that speaks to memories, impressions and oral narrative. Hailing from Awabakal land, both Bel and Ferns are self-taught artists. With a commitment to their craft and a connection to the land, Bel and Ferns are drawn to the natural ochres and pigments that are native to the Australian earth.
While Ferns’ philosophy is deeply entrenched in her cultural identity, in this series she pays homage to her current location. Mexico lends itself perfectly as muse to Fern’s work – its old walls that hold the passage of time within them, that layer life and stories from the past. Ferns’ palette echoes what she sees – vibrant colours, surfaces and textures are parallel to her signature flat planed, cubist subjects and stucco finish. There is a layering of what she sees that is interspersed with what she paints. The familiar portraits of faces who represent her heritage; those of darkened features, recurring motifs of the sombrero and hibiscus flower, and still life arrangements that express a cultural connection to place.
Bel’s palette and subjects hum a meditative silence of the bush and landscape of this Sunburnt Country. Her sombre palette and repetition of her subject echo a melancholia in her rhetoric. With looming, skeletal trees in the foreground, a Rothko-like treatment of canvas pulls the viewer in, posing a question – will you take a moment to bask in the silence? Bel’s connection to place, childhood memories and surrealist dreamscapes are evident as her paintings speak to her philosophy of art as medicine.
- Written by Joey Hespe