GLOBAL CENTRE FOR DRAWING

Portraiture in Focus

Anita Taylor, Irene Barberis and Helen Sturgess 

March 23rd - April 21st, Exhibition opening event Saturday March 23, 2-4pm

 

The three artists in the current exhibition, Portraiture in Focus all investigate the portrait. All are women who have been making art over a lengthy period and all have worked at some stage on portraits and the self.

Irene Barberis in this exhibition portrays herself confronting herself with a book in one hand and long brushes [sword-like] in the other; cavalier one could say, or perhaps she throws the question at us – “what actually is self?” Alongside the life size self portrait laser cut-outs, are a series of sensitive and direct works of her artist friends and family drawn and painted from life over many years. Each work has a textual story written of it underscoring the way she understands the open-endedness of all art process, no matter how conventional it seems.

Anita Taylor's large-scale drawings explore the nature and relationship of the female subject from the perspective of both artist and model. Through the encounter and act of drawing, the nature of self-representation and identity is explored, and the resultant portrayal becomes a description or disclosure of an inherent paradox as a mind reveals the form it inhabits.

Helen Sturgess’ works utilizes a broad range of media from bronze to plasticine, to watercolour. She weaves together storytelling, memory and history both personal and collective, combining traditional and contemporary practices. Sturgess transforms the material and objects into a reflection of the self’s internal landscapes, exploring psychological terrain through drawing, sculpture and installation.