19 June - 8 July 2014
about the exhibition
Inspired by her personal experiences with nature, Sue Lovegrove’s paintings portray both the strength and fragility of the natural world. The wild and rugged landscape of Southern Tasmania where Sue lives – with the mountains, button grass plains and understory of small plants and leaf litter – continues to shape and inform her work. Her recent work represents two ways of looking at the landscape: looking up at the sky and looking down at the ground, with the clouds, twigs and sticks creating patterns suggestive of nests. For Sue, these nest-like forms can be seen as moments in time or pauses on her journey, as well as representing a fragile habitat for native species. Through the continuous contours of the shifting cloud formations and in the intricate assemblages made by sticks and twigs pushed into hollows along the track, “these paintings represent imaginary nests that attempt to enclose, wrap and protect all that is vulnerable”.
Born in Adelaide, Sue Lovegrove completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 1990 and a PhD in 2002 from the School of Art at the Australian National University. She spent several years lecturing in visual arts at the Australian National University and the University of Wollongong and is currently teaching at the University of Tasmania. In 2003, Sue was awarded the Australian Antarctic Division Arts Fellowship, followed by an Arts Tasmania Natural and Cultural Heritage Grant in 2006. Sue’s work is represented in collections across Australia including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Parliament House, Artbank and Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
