anim(us) exhibition / Stella Downer Fine Art, Sydney, Australia
21 February – 17 March 2012
Opening recepetion on Saturday 25 February, 3-5 pm
Curated by Sarah Vandepeer.
Tanya Chaitow, Lynda Draper & Jacqui Hudson explore the relationship between emotion and creativity, producing uncanny works that teeter between the beautiful and the strange. Animal references found in the artists’ work made might be interpreted as manifestations of the animus ego, as defined by Carl Jung. The anima or animus is an anthropomorphic archetype that we only experience fleeting glimpses of in dreams and it is a powerful source of creative ability.
Ambiguity and whimsy are important elements in Tanya Chaitow’s work and her fanciful paintings and drawings blur past and present, fact and fiction, internal and external reality. By adopting a naïve style, she is able to work intuitively and her works are emotionally charged. In her work the deer appears as an archetype of the self. This susceptible figure floats through the tangled branches of Chaitow’s surreal dreamscapes, leaving us with a poignant sense of vulnerability. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tanya Chaitow immigrated to Australia in 1978. She completed her Masters of Fine Art at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales at the end of 2007. She is regularly selected for the Dobell Prize for Drawing and her work is represented in both public and private collections in Australia, South Africa and the USA.
Lynda Draper fashions ethereal sculptures from stoneware, using opaque white surfaces to evoke a sense of faded memories and nostalgia. Draper’s work is based on a belief that our interpretation of the world is drawn from a well of personal memories and experiences. Christian iconography, infantile animal shapes and strange organic growths all appear across her oeuvre, blended into quirky configurations that beguile or repel.
Lynda Draper has been the recipient of numerous national and international awards. In 2005 she was awarded the Premier Acquisition Award at the prestigious International Competition of Ceramic Art held in the Museum of Ceramics, Faenza, Italy. Draper has exhibited widely around the world and her work is included in many private and public collections including at the National Gallery of Australia; FLICAM Museum in China; International Museum of Ceramics in Italy and the Smithsonian Institute Washington.
Jacqui Hudson builds dainty ceramic assemblages which range from the architectural to the organic. Her contemplative works celebrate the simplicity of handmade shapes. The translucency of the Celadon glazes and Icelandic porcelain that Hudson uses give her works a great sense of delicacy and softness. Tactile egg forms nestle into fragile towers, evoking feminine themes of nesting and nurturing. In other works, stacked forms appear to waver between poise and disaster. Allegories for human relationships, Hudson’S constructions gently probe the nexus between life and death, exploring overarching themes with tender sentiment. Jacqui Hudson received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours from the National Art School in 2009. She completed an Advanced Diploma at the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London in 1980 and has worked in Sydney as a food stylist for many years. In 2008 she received the Sabbia Gallery Exhibition Award and the National Art School N.E. Petherbridge Award.
CONTACT
T: 02 9319 1006 F: 02 9319 1086
info@stelladownerfineart.com.au
Stella Downer Fine Art
Dealer Consultant & Valuer
2 Danks Street, Waterloo, NSW 2017
Sydney, Australia
www.stelladownerfineart.com.au
Above: Tanya Chaitow, Four types of ambiguity, 2011, acrylic on board, 75 x 40 cm
Lynda Draper, Wonderland, 2010, handbuilt porcelaneous stoneware, multiple glaze firings, 18 x 15 x 15 cm
Jacqui Hudson, Rise, 2008, southern ice porcelain, 19.5 x 7 x 7 cm
