Self Portrait: Still Life

Katherine Hattam and Jess Lucas will exhibit together for the first time in August 2011 at St Heliers Street Gallery in Melbourne.  The exhibition will include new paintings by these two artists, made in response to Self Portrait: Still Life, (c.1935), a work by New Zealand Artist Frances Hodgkins.

In her 1935 painting, Hodgkins represents herself as a jumbled selection of personal objects such as scissors, shoes and articles of clothing.  Using complex abstract decorative effects, she allows objects to speak for her presence in this painting.  Subject and object are merged and portraiture is approached through a combination of figuration and abstraction.

By responding to these themes Katherine Hattam and Jess Lucas will extend and explore ideas already present in their own practices.  Hattam is known for her representations of the visual and psychological layering of domestic life.  Lucas has recently completed two series of self-portraits exploring glamour photography and teenage ambition.  Like Hodgkins, both are figurative artists that reference elements of abstraction in their work. 

Hattam and Lucas have had a close working relationship as painters across generations, spanning the last five years.  This show represents the first opportunity to exhibit their work side by side.