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Opens Friday 26 August till 24 September 2011
Artist talk Saturday 10 September, 2pm
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A Touch of Life, an exhibition of works on paper and paintings by Heather Kepski, is the upcoming exhibition at Marianne Newman Gallery. A widely admired artist, Kepski explores the struggles of everyday life in Myanmar with a broad collection of medium in her second solo show at MNG.The exhibition demonstrates the influence of Kepski's travels and her background as a cross-cultural psychologist. In her psychological practice she worked with refugees and migrants and heard the stories of the effects of war and conflict from many people of different cultures. She was directly influenced, producing images of intense personal places, a reflection of and on her life experiences. She has travelled extensively and often challenges her viewers with cross-cultural images, which are layered with meaning. While she tries to capture the complexities of life that many cultures struggle with on a daily basis, she is also interested in the simple things of life that make extraordinary issues manageable during hard times. Her love of indigenous art and culture has reinforced her passion for exploring issues concerning the environment, ethics, balance and harmony.
Recent travels to Myanmar provided her with a wealth of resource material. Although many people know little about Myanmar, most have heard of Aung San Suu Kyi who has struggled for years to bring democracy and justice to her people. Myanmar is under military rule and the generals corrupt people to gain support. Power and control are corrupting influences everywhere in the world and Myanmar is merely a microcosm of what happens elsewhere.
In their daily lives, people from Myanmar struggle to feed their families, raise their children and find happiness. Their religion, which is primarily Buddhist, provides many with great comfort and hope but there is also an underlying current of corruption amongst some monks, which destroys people's trust. It is in this context that Kepski has created many of her images.
Throughout this body of work, Kepski has used visual metaphors. For example, the monks with umbrellas are metaphors for the ‘royal monks'. Named as such by the Burmese people and indicating their corruption of the generals and their abuse of trust, they have been portrayed in a decorative style with their backs to the viewer, walking on water and over people.
Heather Kepski is primarily a printmaker and pushes the boundaries of this art form by creating linocuts, woodcuts, etchings, collagraphs, often using multiple techniques in a single work. In addition she uses pastels and is a skilled painter. Her linocut "A Touch of Life" is currently a finalist in the Fremantle Art Centre Print Award, Australia's foremost award for prints and artists' books.
Kepski has completed fine arts courses at the National Art School, the University of Southern Queensland and Charles Sturt University. She completed an Advanced Diploma in Fine Arts at the Sydney Gallery School and studied printmaking at SACI University, in Florence, Italy.
A prolific artist and exhibitor, Kepski's work is collected nationally and in England, France, Hong Kong and the USA. Believing that art should be accessible to all in the community she is actively involved in the Bundeena Maianbar Art Trail.
Heather Kepski will give a talk "A personal perspective on Myanmar" on Saturday 10 September, 2.30pm, attendance by RSVP please.
A Touch of Life is on show at Marianne Newman Gallery, 1 Albany Street, Crows Nest from 26 August - 24 September 2011. Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm
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