Cult & Harper has burst onto the art scene in Australia. It flung open its doors with its first exhibition curated by Lisa King. It’s bold, its colourful and you have to check it out. Their exhibition ‘Subversive’ boasts 13 prolific Australian artists. The works pop with colour, twist your vision, and in rapture the senses. Curator and fellow artist, Lisa King, has brought together an impressive list of artists that engage with the ‘subversive’ directive.
Curator Lisa King (artist) joined by Georgia Hill, Claire Foxton, Marie Larkin, Ellie Kammer, Olympia Antoniadis, Bohie Palecek, Lusid Art, Kellie Orr, Kate Gagliardi, Lucy Lucy, Rachelle Dusting & Jasmine Ann Dixon. The show will run through the whole of June, finishing up July 1. Gallery hours are Wed-Sat 10-5 and by appointment. For further information, please contact Lisa King at cultandharper@gmail.com
Subversive: An all-female group exhibition
Exhibition Dates:
1 June – 1 July 2018
Cult & Harper
Level 1/168 St Vincent St E, Port Adelaide SA 5015, Australia
Exhibition View – Mural by Lisa King
Lisa talking about her striking mural:
“I tend to work a lot in complimentary colour, so for me, the blue and orange really tied the piece all together… I also think the cool skin tones and mood of the portrait was a bit of a juxtaposition to the brightness of the background and statues… scale is def my strong point, however, sometimes I forget that its in my nature to paint as big as possible and that the viewers are probably not used to this type of size…”
Each artist has taken to the directive with the vibrant energy of the contemporary digital aesthetic. The works speak to the contemporary community in a language of predominantly portraiture. The cool kids turned out for this one, and the artists delivered on their brief. You should recognize a few of the artist and if you don’t, you will soon.
“EXPRESSIVE”
Kate Gagliardi
Lisa King ecstatically talks about the pride she feels for her peers:
“I feel fortunate to have so many female artists, entrepreneurs, and curators around me at this point in my career, these women are a constant reminder as to how powerful and influential we can all be for each other and how we can align and enable ourselves for further growth in gender equality and powerful expression in our work. It was important for me to harness this energy/notions and replicate as much as possible into the hang.”
Is there a specific gender inequality that is addressed in the show or specific work that discuss a specific inequality?
Absolutely topics of gender in this show, specifically Ellie Kammer’s portrait of Lena Dunham and at the time her painting Lena due to her strong ties with feminism… also, I feel that female work provokes so much discussion in gender equality just by being there, male works have been the prominent figures in the world for so long with females practise and voice being disproportionately recognised as a minority which is even then censored for a large majority of it… I think curating an all-female line up is as much statement as we even need to get a response and conversation towards equality…. taking a walk around the gallery for me and looking at all the works I see significant similarities in each piece… strength, power and stance and I feel most of them have an edge so to speak, maybe I am reading too far into it, but my perception perhaps lies with an energy that is finally free of escaping the suppression we have entailed for so many hundreds of years.
“RAW”
Ellie Kammer
“FASHION”
Lusid Art
“ABSTRACT REALISM”
Claire Foxton
“PROFOUND”
Georgia Hill
I noticed most of the works are portraits, was there an intention behind this or is this a reflection of your curatorial ‘eye’ and the collection of artists?
In terms of portrait work, I guess for me as a guest artist-curator I tend to show what appeals to my creational eye indeed… I also used my own network a bit for this exhibition, which was what I intended, a bit of a collection of the artists I highly admire and have worked with most in the past.
What do you feel is the success of the exhibition?
The opening night was a great success, and the turnout was more than we could for expected on such a cold winter’s day in Port Adelaide, the feedback for the gallery and its new lighting and hang really solidified that we have built the gallery right… the most successful part of the show has def been the point of discussion in general… we have had many interviews with young female women feeling empowered by what we are doing at Cult & Harper and how we are putting a strong focus into female artists.
“SENSATION”
Olympia Antoniadis
“NOISY”
Lisa King
