Jen­ny Wat­son, The Fab­ric of Fantasy

‘JEN­NY WAT­SON: THE FAB­RIC OF FANTASY’
5 July — 2 Octo­ber 2017 
“Jen­ny Wat­son is a lead­ing Aus­tralian artist whose con­cep­tu­al paint­ing prac­tice spans more than four decades. Curat­ed by MCA Cura­tor Anna Davis this sur­vey exhi­bi­tion fea­tures works from the 1970s to the present, includ­ing exam­ples of Watson’s ear­ly real­ist paint­ings and draw­ings, and a num­ber of key series of works on fab­ric. Inspired by both punk and fem­i­nism, Watson’s work uses dis­tilled imagery and abbre­vi­at­ed text to cre­ate an inti­mate inte­ri­or world. She has trav­elled wide­ly since the 1970s and employs tex­tiles col­lect­ed on her trav­els as the sur­face for many of her paint­ings, which also often include col­laged mate­ri­als such as images from mag­a­zines, horse’s hair, rib­bons, bows and sequins. Many of Watson’s works fea­ture self-por­traits and alter egos, a cast of long­haired women, hors­es, bal­leri­nas, rock gui­tarists and cats, who enact life’s ongo­ing psy­chodra­mas. Inter­twin­ing auto­bi­og­ra­phy and fic­tion, her work incor­po­rates a diary-like voice that is deliv­ered with dead­pan wit and seems to relay the every­day expe­ri­ences, dreams and desires of a self-pro­claimed sub­ur­ban girl. The rela­tion­ship between text and image is cen­tral to her work, which fre­quent­ly includes a small pan­el of hand paint­ed text that sits along­side a larg­er image, under­cut­ting or chang­ing its mean­ing.”

-Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary Art Aus­tralia, Sydney

Filter

Chi­haru Shio­ta | The Unset­tled Soul | Kun­sthalle Pra­ha | Dazed

The Unset­tled Soul 28 Octo­ber 2024 – 28 April 2025Kun­sthalle Pra­haCzechia Around 400 kilo­me­tres of […]

Read More

David Noo­nan | Rad­i­cal Tex­tiles | Art Gallery of South Australia

Rad­i­cal Tex­tiles 23 Novem­ber 2024 – 30 March 2025Art Gallery of South Aus­traliaKau­r­na / South Australia […]

Read More

EMI­LY FLOYD | Social Stud­ies | Gee­long Gallery

Social Stud­ies 9 Novem­ber 2024 – 9 Feb­ru­ary 2025Gee­long GalleryKulin Nation / Gee­long Artists have long […]

Read More

e‑flux | Ina Lou / Dear Moth­er Earth: Sea, Soil and Solidarity

Ina Lou / Dear Moth­er Earth: Sea, Soil and Sol­i­dar­i­ty 19 – 20 November […]

Read More

ANGEL­I­CA MESI­TI | Prosod­ic Grains | By Art Matters

Prosod­ic Grains 2 Novem­ber 2024 – 30 March 2025By Art Mat­tersHangzhou, Chi­na The exhi­bi­tion features […]

Read More

Kathy Temin | The Bur­den of Objects | Mel­bourne Sculp­ture Biennale

The Bur­den of Objects 9 – 13 Octo­ber 2024 Mel­bourne Sculp­ture Bien­naleNaarm / Mel­bourne The Burden […]

Read More

Maria Madeira | Tais, Cul­ture & Resilience – woven sto­ries from Tim­or Leste

Tais, Cul­ture & Resilience – woven sto­ries from Tim­or Leste Sep­tem­ber 19th – Decem­ber 10th, 2024Trinity […]

Read More

Ker­rie Poli­ness | ArtsHub Exhi­bi­tion Review: Infi­nite: Dobell Aus­tralian Draw­ing Bien­ni­al 2024, AGNSW

ArtsHub Exhi­bi­tion Review: Infi­nite: Dobell Aus­tralian Draw­ing Bien­ni­al 2024, AGN­SW14 Sep­tem­ber 2024 – 1 […]

Read More

David Noo­nan | 15th Gwangju Bien­nale | Pan­sori: A Sound­scape of the 21st Century

PAN­SORI: A Sound­scape of the 21st Cen­tu­ry 7 Sep­tem­ber – 1 Decem­ber, 2024Gwangju, South Korea Con­flict­ual bor­ders, anti-migration […]

Read More

John Nixon | MILK­STARS | Sound Con­stel­la­tions In The Chartwell Collection

MILK­STARSSound Con­stel­la­tions In The Chartwell Col­lec­tion17 August – 20 Octo­ber 2024Te Uru Wait­ākere Contemporary […]

Read More

Angel­i­ca Mesi­ti | MILK­STARS | Sound Con­stel­la­tions In The Chartwell Collection

MILK­STARSSound Con­stel­la­tions In The Chartwell Col­lec­tion17 August – 20 Octo­ber 2024Te Uru Wait­ākere Contemporary […]

Read More

ANGEL­I­CA MESI­TI | The Rites of When

The Rites of When Sep­tem­ber 21st 2024 – May 11th 2025Art Gallery of New South […]

Read More

(SC)OOT(ER)ING around | SU SAN COHN & Euge­nia Raskopoulos

(SC)OOT(ER)ING around­Su san Cohn and Euge­nia Raskopou­los August 3rd – Novem­ber 10th, 2024Tar­rawar­ra Museum […]

Read More

Kathy Temin | Emi­ly Floyd | 2024 Ravenswood Aus­tralian Wom­en’s Art Prize

2024 Ravenswood Aus­tralian Wom­en’s Art Prize11th – 26th May, 2024Syd­ney, Aus­tralia The Ravenswood Aus­tralian Wom­en’s […]

Read More

AES+F | BIEN­NALE OF BONI­FA­CIO #2

Roma AmorThe Fall of EmpiresBien­nale of Boni­fa­cio #2 May 10th to Novem­ber 2nd, 2024De […]

Read More

Chi­haru Shio­ta | Idome­neo, re di Creta

Idome­neo, re di Cre­taDram­ma per musi­ca by Wolf­gang Amadeus Mozart Feb­ru­ary, 2024Grand Théâtre de GenèveGenève […]

Read More

Oliv­er Beer | His­to­ry: A micro­cos­mic perspective

His­to­ryA micro­cos­mic per­spec­tive May 4th – Decem­ber 7th, 202420⁄21 espa­cio de arteBoni­fa­cio, Cor­si­ca, France World […]

Read More

Angel­i­ca Mesi­ti | Art in Conflict

Art in Con­flict 20 April to 9 June, 2024 Noosa Region­al Gallery Art in Con­flict is […]

Read More

Peter Tyn­dall | thoughts arise / HA HA

thoughts arise / HA HA 11 April to 11 May, 2024 Con­ners Con­ners Gallery Read […]

Read More

Ker­rie Poli­ness | Characters

Char­ac­ters 5 April to 4 May, 2024 Hay­dens Hay­dens is pleased to present Char­ac­ters, a group exhibition […]

Read More

Su san Cohn | Pre­sent­ing the 3rd Engel­horn Jew­ellery Lecture

Ear­rings are for Lis­ten­ing. An Engel­horn Lec­ture at Die Neue Samm­lung3 March 2024, 11amDie […]

Read More

Vivi­enne Shark Lewitt | 18th Ade­laide Bien­ni­al of Aus­tralian Art: Inner Sanctum

18th Ade­laide Bien­ni­al of Aus­tralian Art: Inner Sanc­tum1 March to 2 June, 2024Art Gallery of […]

Read More

Natal­ie King | Cura­tor of the first Tim­or-Leste Pavilion

The first-ever Tim­or-Leste Pavil­ion, which coin­cides with the 25th anniver­sary of the nation’s independence […]

Read More

Maria Madeira | 60TH Inter­na­tion­al Venice Biennale

Kiss and Don’t Tell 20 April – 24 Novem­ber 2024 Tim­or-Leste Pavil­ion at 60th […]

Read More