13 February – 4 March 2014
about the exhibition
Judy Holding has established a strong identity as an artist through the development of a personal visual ‘vocabulary’ of symbolic forms. In particular, her beautifully realised depictions of trees and birds, through her sculptures and works on paper, reflect her abiding love of the diverse flora and fauna of Australia. Judy has said of working in the landscape, that the “most powerful lesson I have learned is not to look just with my eyes but to ‘look’ with my ears, fingers and nose, so that the experience involves all my senses.” Consequently, she imbues her work with a palpable sense of the timeless quality of these landscapes that others recognise and are inspired by. Trees and birds are universally recognised symbols thatJudy often reduces to their silhouettes, painted in jewel-like colours, overlapping and interacting with each other in the construction of a very individual artistic lexicon. Much of the motivation for her recent work is also drawn from her increasing concern with environmental issues affecting our natural world; “Genetic modification, industrial agriculture, global warming, fracking etc etc. It is becoming increasingly obvious just how much the fragility of natural systems and the interconnectedness of species is being ignored.”
Judy Holding is a Melbourne-based artist who has been practising for over thirty years. In 1977, she completed her Diploma of Fine Art at Monash University and since then has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions across Australia. In 2002, she exhibited in Le SeiStagionidella Terra Australiana at the Monash University Centre in Prato, Italy and in 2004 was a finalist in the Montalto Sculpture Prize and the Swan Hill Print and Drawing Award. Her work is represented in collections throughout Australia including Artbank, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Benalla Regional Gallery and Shepparton Regional Gallery.