MUD HOUSE
‘MUD HOUSE’ Kathryn Dolby & Hana Vasak
Curated & presented by Amber Creswell Bell
Saint Cloche Upstairs / 11 – 18 May
Opening Reception: Saturday 11 May (please join us for drinks from midday)
KATHRYN DOLBY is an emerging visual artist residing in the Northern Rivers, NSW. Dolby’s paintings reflect an intent and expressive curiosity about the quiet and seemingly insignificant in-between moments of everyday life. Through an intuitive exploration of colour and reductive forms, her current investigations delve into the emotional and physical landscapes that are deeply immersed in her transition into and through motherhood. In 2014 she completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts at Southern Cross University in Lismore and was awarded the Lismore Regional Gallery Graduate Award. As a result of this Kathryn had her first solo exhibition in the Lismore Regional Gallery in 2015. During her time at university she was awarded the Camera House Visual Arts Scholarship and the Kaske award for printmaking. In the subsequent years Kathryn has shown work in various regional galleries, with Small Spaces in Sydney, Modern Times in Melbourne and continues to exhibit nationally.
Artist Statement:
An interest in the intimacy of simple moments that occur through everyday life continues to permeate my evolving practice. These latest works that venture into the world of merging abstraction and representation are an oblique, personal reference to the shifting, yet repetitious transition into and through parenthood. Through symbolic motifs, collected colours from my immediate surroundings and a desire to embrace a level of ‘clunkiness’ with the brush, Mud House aims to explore the poetry in the grittier aspects of ‘building a home’. The word Mud alludes to the natural landscape surrounding our home and also the more chaotic emotional aspects of familial relationships, whereas ‘House’ is indicative of elements of order, as reflected through representations of farmland, architectural structures and the repetitive symbol of the baby gates. In all of my paintings I continue to seek a quiet and contemplative middle ground, so the ambiguous glimpses of narrative make space for the viewer to fill with their own interpretations and curiosities.
HANA VASAK is ceramic artist who embraces creating sculptural vessels. Her ongoing development in exploring new forms often takes visual inspiration from sculpture, natural forms, ancient pottery and her travels. Each piece made has evolved from another and allows Hana to continue refining her studio based practice to create pieces that merge sculpting and hand building techniques and that subtly play with shape, form and texture.
Artist Statement:
This collection of sculptural vessels borrows and draws inspiration from natural textures of rock and earth, decaying leaves and bark. Many of the forms reappropriate an abstracted landscape, silhouettes of botanical forms, rock formations and sandy shallow creeks. Visually inspired by the expansive landscapes and places I visited during my travels through Europe last year, I wanted to reflect upon these as well as my surrounding environment at home. I was drawn to exploring and developing a body of work that embraced the concept of raw materials, exposing the bare clay, creating textured surfaces and bringing together a colour palette that captured those soft and natural earthy tones in these remembered and present landscapes as well as Kathryn’s paintings.
For more information, please contact: info[at]saintcloche.com