Please hit "attending" on the Launch Night Facebook event. It helps keep you updated, and it also helps promote the event to others.
If you’ve been following me on social media recently, you’d have seen that I’ve been working on some large and involved exhibition pieces. In fact, I’ve been working on those pieces since January. Well today, those paintings are all finally completed!
My works will be featured in the joint exhibition titled FENESTRA, which unites three artists–myself, Michelle Le Plastrier and Izzy Voodoo–in a world building experiment. FENESTRA means “window” in Latin, and in biology it can also refer to a tiny pore in an organic body–in a bone for example.
A snippet of Izzy Voodoo's work
For this exhibition we’re presenting vital and intimate stories from women's perspectives. Each artwork is a sort of “window” into our imaginary worlds, but also a glimpse into our own experience.
A preview of Michelle Le Plastrier's work
For me personally, this is exciting because it’s the first major body of work that I’ve exhibited in a gallery space since 2014. Painting the Fenestra pieces has also been a personal process of reflecting on my own heritage–particularly my Asian heritage. I don’t have a singular grand statement about that process, but it did have me thinking about my experience of race and racism in Australia. In practical terms, it also reminded me of how little good reference of Asian women there is. And the work that does depict Asian women often fetishises them in the process. But we’re much more multifaceted than that. I think The Band painting taps into that fact.
A snippet from my painting The Band
Every band member is a unique individual and they’re all coming together to have fun and express themselves for the sake of it, rather than to entertain someone else.
With all of this in mind, I’ve decided that I’ll only be painting women of Asian heritage moving forward. I don’t want my work to be just about that, but it does feel like a new era in my art. Hopefully you’ll enjoy this new exploration as much as I am. It’s allowing me to share more of myself and learn and grow as an artist.
So, if you’re in Melbourne on the 28th of July, I’d love for you to come along to the Fenestra opening. It’s at Off The Kerb Gallery (66B Johnston Street, Collingwood) and the opening runs from 6 - 8 PM. Otherwise, you can also come and see our work after the opening. We’ll be exhibiting from July 28 to August 10.
Again, if you intend on coming please hit "attending" on the Facebook event. It's the best way for me to get the word out there.
Lots of Love
Zeke
The development of FENESTRA was proudly supported by HOTA Home of the Arts, through HOTA’s ArtKeeper program, Regional Arts Development Fund and funding from Yarra City Council small projects grant with special thanks to Tully Jugoe
The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government and the City of Gold Coast Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.