16 June – 9 July 2022
about the exhibition
Rona Green’s latest exhibition of colourful characters brings together hand coloured linocuts, paintings, sculpture and ceramic tiles. For Rona, it is the construction of invented characters with their own distinctive personalities and worlds that is so compelling for her as an artist. She explains that …”I am particularly interested in how identity is expressed via the body; physical appearance and the ways it can be altered; the skin and its potential to be the stem point for transformation.” Rona transforms familiar domestic pets into tattoo-covered thugs and punks reflecting underground street culture, her animal subjects taking on very human characteristics and attitudes. Her rough and ready animals express a range of emotions and are full of personality. Some are provocative and menacing with their challenging stares, while others have jaded or apprehensive facial expressions revealing a comical helplessness. While her works are simply rendered, her imagery has many layers and lends itself to reflection on the social issues of identity formation, including gender and class politics. As she says, “The creative process, for me, is very much about synthesis of the real and imagined – fusing an eclectic mix of reference material with observations and thoughts to invent something otherworldly and absurd – that is also authentic.
Rona Green has been exhibiting since 1994 and has received numerous prizes, including acquisitive awards at galleries in Geelong, Fremantle, and Swan Hill and, in 2006, the Silk Cut Award. Rona was engaged in teaching positions from 2000 to 2017, and has travelled to Singapore, Borneo, Brunei, the Netherlands, Romania, and most recently to Japan. Her prints are held in numerous collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Artbank, Art Gallery of South Australia, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Silk Cut Foundation, Chiang Mai Contemporary Art Museum (Thailand), Chicago Printmaking Collective (USA), London Print Studios (UK) and University of Colorado (USA).
