A Fragile State

“A Fragile State” is a group exhibition of six contemporary emerging female artists exploring the theme of fragility across different mediums and artistic visions. Each artist brings a range of experiences, talents and creative journeys to the exhibition.

The exhibition by Cinzia (Syndy) Esteves, Emily Karr, Bailee Lobb, Tracy Stirzaker, Catherine Thickett and Regula Wettstein-Graf will encompass 2D and 3D works including paintings, installation, performance, mixed media, photography and textiles artworks.

Multiple artistic visions within “A Fragile State” explore sub themes such as the body (physical and emotional), the family, the environment and the constructs of society highlighting interdisciplinary practices and igniting conversation around contemporary Australian society.

Opening Wednesday 14th February | 6–8pm.

Continues until Sunday 25th February.

Gallery open Tuesday–Saturday 11am–6pm | Sunday 11am–4pm.

Cinzia (Syndy) Esteves lives in Sydney and has recently completed a Fine Art (Honours) degree at UNSW Art & Design and exhibited in the 2017 spring festival in 107 Gallery, the annual at UNSW Oxford Street Gallery in 2017 and has an upcoming group exhibition at Gaffa Gallery in February 2018. Cinzia is aspired by human expressions and their surroundings through experienced ethereal feelings and societal conditions. Cinzia’s mediums are oil painting and drawing including pencil, colour pencil, charcoal, pastel and ink. She mixes her own colours and retains experimenting with palettes crucial in her works.

Emily Kaar resides in Bullaburra, Blue Mountains. Growing up in the natural scape of the Blue Mountains influenced her keen interest in creating art to promote awareness of environmental issues like invasive weed spread; she continues to work in this area from her home studio in Bullaburra. In 2017, she completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at UNSW Art & Design. Emily works primarily in detailed pencil drawings, sculptural works and large outdoor installation pieces. She works in primarily in the medium of sculptural carving; specifically plaster, Hebel and sandstone but is also strongly influenced by found and natural materials. Emily works in response to personal life experiences and is heavily influenced by nature, demonstrating change and growth, in particular growing invasive rhizomatic plant root systems and how they may be symbolic of humanities ubiquitous growth. She is inspired by tensions between the botanical and man made world, with a strong interest in the intertwined fate of damaged botanical ecologies and humanity.

Bailee Lobb, born NZ 1989, is a visual artist working with mixed media to create installation, sound, and performance works that explore mental and invisible illness. Her practice investigates illness as a spectrum of changing experiences rather than the polar identity to wellness, engaging with Critical Disability Theory and challenging fixed notions of identity. Bailee often works from personal experience, discussing subjectivity, the physicality of invisibility, and the daily labour that contributes to an outward appearance of wellness. Through these deep and sometimes uncomfortable investigations she makes the intangible tangible; highly subjective and often misunderstood experiences can be actively engaged with through her work, creating a space where understanding of what and how another might live can begin.

Tracy Stirzaker is a Sydney based artist, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Distinction) from Art & Design, UNSW. Stirzaker’s art practice is inspired by her personal journey, her thoughts, feelings and lived experience as a contemporary Australian woman. Her experimental practice explores the field of expanded painting and spans a range of disciplines including textiles, painting, installation, text and film. Stirzaker is currently exhibiting at Gallery Lane Cove, in a group exhibition In Time. Following her recent 3-month artist residency, Stirzaker has an upcoming solo show Recalibrate at Gallery Lane Cove in March 2018.

Catherine Thickett is a performance and installation artist currently living and working in Sydney, Australia. Thickett completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in January 2017 and has exhibited at galleries and public sites including Monster Mouse, A&D Space, Randwick Eco Park, UNSW Galleries and 107 Projects. Throughout her career, Thickett has explored themes through the lens of her own mental health and experience of the world, with the intention of raising awareness of prejudices and injustices experienced by some within society. She hopes to further expand this practice in her current works.

Regula Wettstein-Graf is a Sydney based emerging artist with a particular interest in the human body and psyche. Her artwork examines the intangible, the way we deal with physical and emotional challenges, as these are the events that shape our identity. Born in Switzerland, Regula has lived in Sydney for 25 years. In 2015 she majored in painting and textiles with a Bachelor of Fine Arts at UNSW Art and Design. Her work includes installations, paintings and sculptural textiles. Having completed a Master of Curating and Cultural Leadership at UNSW Art and Design in 2017, she believes in the value of relevance in relation to audience engagement and immersive artistic experiences. Regula has previously exhibited in group exhibitions at local and community art galleries on Sydney’s North Shore as well as at ADSPACE, UNSW Art and Design in 2013 and Kudos Gallery, Art and Design Annual 2015 at UNSW.