"Petrina Hicks: Bleached Gothic" Exhibition (Melbourne, Australia)

  

Petrina Hicks - Bleached Gothic

Petrina Hicks: Bleached Gothic, the first major survey exhibition of celebrated Sydney-based, 47 year old Australian photographer and artist Petrina Hicks, includes more than forty enigmatic and multi-layered photographs spanning a 15-year period, from 2003 to 2019, that traces her evolution from commercial photographer to multi-awarded artist. Opened last September 27, 2019 at the Ian Potter Center: NGV Australia, the exhibition will run until March 29, 2020.

Check out "Ian Potter Center: NGV Australia"

 

L-R: Copper and Brass III (2015), Persephone (2015) and Bounty of History (2010)

Hicks has gained a strong reputation for her enigmatic, large-scale, hyper-real and multi-layered photographs that, seen together for the first time, subvert and disrupt the photographic language of advertising and portraiture. She photographs children, animals and young women against simple backgrounds and, to define and hone her distinctive style, frequently returning to the same models and motifs.

Venus (2013)

Through both solo and group shows, Petrina has widely exhibited her work in Australia, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, USA, United Kingdom, Japan, China, Mexico and Brazil. Her work was selected to be exhibited in the 17th International Videobrasil (Brazil, 2011-2012) Volta NY 2015, Pingyao International Photography Festival (China) and Art Platform (LosAngeles, USA). She is represented by Stills Gallery and Helen Gory Galerie.

Deb (2006)

Petrina’s works belong to various public and private collections such as The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane), Tweed Regional Gallery (Murwillumbah) and the National Gallery of Victoria. 

Into the Abyss (2011)

She has been awarded various notable prizes and residencies including the Josephine Ulrick Photography Award for Portraiture, 2008 ABN Emerging Artist Award, La Cite Paris Residency through the Art Gallery of New South Wales and an eight month fellowship with Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany.

 

Shenae and Jade (2005)

Often working in reference to animals, a number of her photos capture young women and children alongside chimpanzees, wolves, cats, pigs, snakes and birds.  

Shewolf I (2016)

The human models and animals, set against simple backgrounds, are recurring subjects that portray inspiration from mythology and art history. Her models’ faces are also obscured behind veils, seashells or a thick coating of white hair. 

 

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (2015)

Hicks’ photo The Unbearable Lightness of Being (2015),  a reclining nude cradling an aged and crumbling ceramic vase, is a play on a Classical Greek motif and, in another work Serpentina I, II & III (2015), an albino python coiling around an equally pale arm of Lauren Dawes evokes Biblical notions of purity.

Fertile (2010)

Interested in capturing beauty in the atypical, a number of photographs feature Lauren Dawes, a model and singer with albinism who, for 16 years, has been a long-time muse. Her flawless and ethereal appearance has become one of the most recognizable elements of Hicks's work.

 

Lauren with Sunglasses II (2019)

Also included in the exhibition are five subtly looping short video works that are filmed at high speed, around 1000 frames per second, resulting in slow motion imagery that play with the concept of slow time and creates a sense of menace and unease in the viewer. 

 

Rosemary's Baby (2008)

Coinciding with the exhibition, a large-scale and extensively illustrated monograph, detailing the artist’s work to date and juxtaposing Hick’s work with the poetry of SylviaPlath (which highlights the poetic impulse of Hicks's work), will be published and released by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).

 

Melo Melo (2019)

Petrina Hicks: Bleached Gothic: Level 3, Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia. Admission is free. Further information is available from www.ngv.vic.gov.au.