13 – 28 NOVEMBER 2015

OPENING EVENT: Thursday 19th November, 6.00 – 8.00pm

Guest presentation by Chloe Aldenhoven, Lock the Gate Regional Coordinator, Victoria

50% of proceeds from sales at the event will be going to Lock the Gate Alliance.

Over the past 15 years of creative practice, Bronwyn Rees has focused on making richly textured prints that express her particular vision of Australia’s landscapes and wilderness areas.  Evoking the inherent beauty and importance of these natural spaces, Rees communicates a poignant environmental message that is aptly conveyed in the title of her forthcoming exhibition: Protection.

This exhibition features a selection of key works created by Rees over the past five years as Artist in Residence at the Firestation Print Studio, a not-for-profit open access print studio, gallery and artist studio complex in Melbourne’s inner south-east.

Through her meandering lines and expressive mark-making Rees translates the visual qualities of place, along with the wild, unseen energies bound up in the locations she chooses to represent. As an Australian with European cultural heritage, Rees also ponders ideas surrounding identity within her work, and the notion of viewing the landscape from the outside looking in. 

All non-indigenous landscape art is essentially a mediated view of nature, yet Rees seeks to go beyond pure representation and convey a deeper notion of humanity’s connection to the earth, and the importance to retain it in modern life.

“I am always trying to tell a story about Australian identity – as a third generation colonial import of undistinguished lineage, this is a slippery thing to try and grab…  For me, I feel most Australian when walking and camping in the bush, my humanity slipping away and becoming smaller and more fragile. Feeling the power, space and ferocity of our wilderness.”  

- Bronwyn Rees, 2015

Informed by this emotional, psychological and spiritual experience of the natural world, and her place within it, Rees uses etching and drypoint printmaking techniques to vividly capture the uninhibited spirit that characterizes the Australian bush.

Bronwyn Rees image details: The Optimistic Crow, etching colour multiplate, 55 x 55 cm, Memory Box, drypoint on acetate, 106 x 76 cm, Motherland, etching, 56 x 76 cm, Nanango II, etching, 56 x 76 cm

Bronwyn Rees is a Melbourne based artist who holds a degree in Illustration from the Queensland College of Art. She subsequently undertook a three-year stint at Glasgow Print Workshop, and is currently Artist in Residence at the Firestation Print Studio. 

MEDIA ENQUIRIES CONTACT: Marguerite Brown

 Email: [email protected]