Cherry Hood - New Watercolours 2015

Cherry Hood New Watercolours Exhibition 28 October – 15 November 2015 Opening Saturday 31 October 2-4pm

63 Jersey Road Woollahra NSW 2025 Australia | T. (02) 9327-3922 | info@olsenirwin.com | www.olsenirwin.com

A painting by Australian artist Cherry Hood hangs in the hallway of my home.

It depicts a young girl, aged six or seven, her head half turned to gaze back at the viewer. The left side of her face is illuminated by a silvery unseen light source. The other half is washed with a shadow that gathers into darkness below her neck. Her body is obscured. The child is beautiful: full-lipped, with large almond-shaped eyes. It’s not her beauty, however, which makes the portrait so compelling; it’s the ambiguous nature of her gaze. She fixes the viewer with a look that can be read as fear or defiance, depending on what the observer is inclined to see. Hood’s capacity to capture the ambiguity of children’s gazes – to make that ambiguity visible – is the hallmark of her extraordinary talent.

The more I’ve studied this painting, though, the less I see it as simply a portrait of a child and the more I’m inclined to see it as equally a portrait of the adult viewer and our quest to know what it is children know. Lurking beneath our scrutiny of children is the fear that they may know too much – or perhaps the fear that we’ve forgotten what it was like to be a child.

Hood’s latest suite of watercolour images show an artist at the height of her painterly talents and powers of observation. They are simultaneously beautiful and uncanny. They compel and unsettle us. They remind us that children have their own powerful interior lives. In this artist they have found a painter who both respects and explores that.

Prof Catharine Lumby, 2015

Cover: Jamie, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Adam, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Alex, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Bobby, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Dan, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

David, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Harry, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Josh, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Katie, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Kim, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Lily, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Mark, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Sandy, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Peter, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Ricky, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

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 Mikie, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

William, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Abbey, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Elise, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Zac, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Jamie, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

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 Mathew, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Luke, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Ben, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Fin, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Dylan, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Angus, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

Euan, 2015, watercolour on paper, 76 x 57cm

BIOGRAPHY 1950

Born, Australia

EDUCATION Masters of Visual Art, and Bachelor of Visual Art with Honours, Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney The National Art School, Fine Art, Painting Accademia di Belle Arti, Perugia, Italy, Sculpture St George Technical College, Fine Art SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2015 2013 2010 2008 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002

2001

‘New Watercolours’, Olsen Irwin, Sydney ‘Mentors: Inspirational Women’, Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, Sydney 'Works on Paper , Heiser Gallery, Brisbane ‘Miniature Paintings Farm Life’, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney 50x50, Arc One, Melbourne ‘New Paintings’, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney ‘Now and Then’, Schubert Contemporary, Queensland ‘Lost to the Land’, Arc One, Melbourne ‘After Nature, After the Fact’, Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide ‘Harold’s End’, Varnish Gallery, San Fransisco ‘Harolds End’, Deitsch Projects, New York ‘Ayesha’s Child’, Arc One, Melbourne ‘Bruder3’, Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver Family Matters, Maroondah Regional Gallery, Vicroria ‘Bruder2’, Lehmann, Leskiw + Schedler, Zurich ‘Bruder1’, Lehmann, Leskiw + Schedler, Toronto ‘Stranger than Fiction’, Mori Gallery, Sydney ‘Interface’, Mori Gallery, Sydney

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2008 The Doug Moran Portrait Prize, NSW State Library Gallery (finalist) 2007 The Archibald Prize, finalist Hutchins Work on Paper Prize, (peoples choice award) Whyalla Art prize, (peoples choice award) The Portia Geach Memorial Award, SH Ervin Gallery, (finalist) The Melbourne Art Fair, Arc One, Melbourne The Toronto Art Fair, Lehmann, Leskiw + Schedler, Toronto 2004 The Dobell Drawing Prize, Art Gallery of NSW (finalist) The Doug Moran Portrait Prize, NSW State Library Gallery (finalist) The Summer Show, Arc One, Melbourne 2003 Art Cologne, Minor representation at, Schedler, Lehmann, Leskiw A Year In Art, S.H Ervin Gallery, Sydney The Kedumba Drawing Award, Kedumba Gallery (winner) Arthur Guy Memorial Award, Bendigo (finalist) ‘Portrayal’, Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver Sydney Art on Paper Fair, Akky van Ogtrop Fine Art, Sydney Scrubbers Revenge, Penrith Regional Gallery, Penrith ‘More Real Than Life’, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne Scratch The Surface, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra Ned Kelly, SH Ervin Gallery 2002 The Archibald Portrait Prize The Art Gallery of NSW (winner) The Archibald Portrait Prize Regional Touring Exhibition

The Doug Moran Portrait Prize (finalist) and Regional Touring Exhibition Heimlich unHeimlich, curator, Juliana Engberg, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne The Portia Geach Memorial Award, SH Ervin Gallery, (Peoples Choice) Contemporary Portraiture The National Portrait Gallery, Canberra INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney National Gallery of Australia, Canberra ArtBank, Sydney Penrith Regional Gallery Maroondah Regional Gallery Muswellbrook Regional Gallery Goulburn Regional Gallery Hazelhurst Gallery National Portrait Gallery, Canberra Tweed Gallery, Art Gallery of South Australia Gold Coast Regional Gallery BIBLIOGRAPHY Fogarty Richard, Head On, catalogue, Toronto 2007 Alex Zafiris, ‘Cherry Picking’, Paper Magazine, New York, Dec 04 Andrew Bangs, JT LeRoy at Deitch Black Book Magazine, No.34 Nov.04 Christine Westwood, ‘Cherry Hood’, Oyster Magazine, issue 55 Dec 04 JT LeRoy, ‘Harold’s End’, Last Gasp, San Francisco 04 Anne Marsh, Ayeha’s Child, catalogue Robert Nelson, ‘Drip-Fed Gargantuans’, The Age, Nov 17th 04 Rachel Kent, ‘The Many Faces of Cherry Hood’, Art and Australia, Vol 41 Autumn, No.3, 04 Robin Laurence, ‘Cherry Hood’, Georgia Straight, Canada Oct, 03 John Bently Mays, ‘Cherry Hood’, Amigo Motel, Canada, April 03 Gary Michael Dault,’ Eroticized Boys Bother and Bewilder’, The Globe and Mail, Canada, 2003 Brüder, Catalogue, Lehmann, Leskiw + Schedler, Zürich +Toronto Philipp Meier, ‘Travestie jugendlicher Unschuld’, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 6 April 2003 Ned Kelly Catalogue, SH Ervin Gallery, The National Trust 2003 Michael Hutak, 50 Most Collectable Artists, Cherry Hood, Australian Art Collector, 2003 The Archibald Portrait Prize 2002, press Jonathan Turner, ‘Cherry Hood’, ARTnews, New York, May 2002 Bruce James, ‘Rebirth Of The Real’, Australian Art Collector, April/June 02 Victoria Hynes, ‘Boy Zone’, Sydney Morning Herald, Metro 25 January 2002 Bruce James, ‘The Primacy Of Self Over Technology’, Sydney Morning Herald, Jan 2002 Courtney Kidd, ‘Disturbing Energy’, Sydney Morning Herald, April 2001 Sebastian Smee, ‘Hello Cruel World’, Sydney Morning Herald, Nov 2000

Cherry Hood New Watercolours Exhibition 28 October – 15 November 2015 Opening Saturday 31 October 2-4pm

63 Jersey Road Woollahra NSW 2025 Australia | T. (02) 9327-3922 | info@olsenirwin.com | www.olsenirwin.com