KIATA MASON
ASSOCIATED ARTIST
The Invitation of a Feast of Curation or an Octopus in a Milk Jug!
“That one's from a dream,” Kiata says but doesn't elaborate, that's left to me. And so I tell you the fish will cut the onion itself and swim back out to sea. And it's not even that a meal is being prepared so much as laid out raw if you want it —or on the verge of reanimation. And the bushes behind are on fire and encroaching or being kept at bay by the sea and the stream that flows under this meal of life on which we are floating. Arr—see the sky down below—stars setting into the desert of an underworld unconscious. The composition set alight by coriander green: juxtaposition of all that realism and the dream.
Kiata tells me that none of the other paintings are inspired by dreams but a careful arrangements of significant objects, creating for the viewer an empathic experience. 'There's always one thing just out of place,' she says, and this is how she draws her audience into the painting's world. This sense of disruption (I'd also call it defamiliarisation) is an opening for the viewer to imagine themselves into—and so we find an octopus in a milk jug!
For the Surrealists the archetypal image of this kind came from the French poet Comte de Lautréamont's line: "the fortuitous encounter upon a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella!"1 The juxtaposition defamiliarises both objects and the viewer's perception of reality itself; in turn giving substance and depth to the unique world existing within the frame of the painting. The careful arrangement of deeply personal objects does not offer up all the painter's secrets but rather creates in the viewer a sense of intrigue and curiosity which encourages and supports individual thinking making meaning.
So I'm thinking Bonnard, I'm thinking Roy, I'm thinking Frida. I'm thinking the flat assemblage of the stage, which is flat but deep—everything a compartmentalisation brought into conversation, blurring sharp edges with understanding.
So I'm thinking it's a feast of curation, of direction—crafting a private narrative, a narrowing into the particular object placed like a vessel for recollections, the invitation of two glasses brimming with significance, triggering in the viewer their own constellation of memories to add to the table—come take a seat it's all there waiting.
So I'm thinking Frida but it's my Frida, the black and white Frida with the carriage in the background like the one that ran her down. I'm thinking Bonnard, but it's my Bonnard seen in Paris when I was 24 and so disheveled people would drop coins in my coke can thinking I was begging. I'm thinking Shakespeare on that pillow but it's me with his words in my mouth blinded by stage lights forgetting my lines.
I can't know why the octopus is in the milk jug (if it is a milk jug at all!) but the incongruity of the image has me captured, allowing me to imagine myself the dinner party prankster hiding it under a layer of milk for an unsuspecting guest to discover. And so an empathy, a connection, a togetherness with the world of the painting is developed—I reach for the other glass, take my place amid the scene waiting for that first sucking tentacle to reveal itself.
1. Comte de Lautréamont, Les Chants De Maldoror, trans. by Guy Wernham, New York: New Directions Books, 1965. pp 263
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Dr Gareth Jenkins
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Education
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2014-16 Master of Fine Arts (Drawing), National Art School, Sydney
2012 Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours (Drawing), National Art School
2004 Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting), National Art School
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Awards
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2023 Finalist Sir John Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Finalist STILL: National Still Life Award 2023, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, Finalist, 2023 Mosman Art Prize, Sydney.
2022 Finalist Doug Moran Portrait Prize,
2021 Finalist Muswellbrook Art Prize, Paper, Muswellbrook Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2021 Finalist Still- National Still Life Award 2021, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW
2020 Finaliat BAM Art Prize, Byron Art Magazine, Northern Rivers Community Gallery, Finalist Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Art Gallery, Cowra, NSW, Finalist Portia Geach Memorial Award S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2019 Finalist Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Art Gallery, Cowra, Finalist Bayside Acquisitiive Art Prize, Bayside Art Gallery, Brighton Victoria, Finalist Outback Art Prize, Outback Regional Art Gallery Winton Queensland, Finalist Muswellbrook Art Prize (painting section), Muswellbrook Regional Art Gallery
2018 Finalist Paddington Art Prize, Sydney, Finalist Sir John Sulman Art Award Art Gallery of NSW, Won the Works on Paper section of the Muswellbrook Art Prize, Muswellbrook Regional Art Gallery
2017 Finalist Still’s Art Prize Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, Semi Finalist - Doug Moran Portrait Prize, on line exhibition, Finalist - Black Swan Portrait Prize, Perth, Finalist, Muswellbrook 44th Art Prize, Drawing, and Painting, Muswellbrook
2016 Semi Finalist, Doug Moran Portrait Prize, on line Exhibition, Finalist, Adelaide Perry Prize for drawing, Sydney
2015 Finalist, Hurford Hardwood Portrait Prize, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore, Finalist, Paddington Art Prize, Woollahra, Sydney, Finalist, Naked & Nude Manning Art Prize, Taree
2013 Semi Finalist - Doug Moran portrait Prize, on line exhibition
2012 Finalist - Dobell Drawing Prize, NSW Gallery, Sydney , Finalist - Mosman Art Prize, Sydney, Finalist - Hornsby Art Prize, Sydney
2011 Finalist - Blake Prize, Sydney, Finalist - Gosford Art Prize, Finalist - Flanagan Art Prize, Highly Commended (mixed media) - Lachlan Valley Art Awards
2004 Highly Commended Zooman Art Exhibition, Highly Commended Adelaide Swift Art Award, South West Rocks, First round selection Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship Sydney
Solo Exhibitions
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2021 My Home By the Sea, AK Bellinger Gallery, Inverell
2020 The Artists table Arthouse Gallery, Sydney
2019 The Theatrical Eye Muswellbrook Arts Centre, Muswellbrook NSW
2018 Treasures- An Ode to the Objects We Keep Close, curated by Amber Creswell Bell, Special Group Studios, Sydney
2017 Bea’s Table curated by Amber Creswell Bell at Saint Cloche Gallery
2016 Masters Drawing Examination Exhibition The Interrupted Act Hoff Space NAS Sydney
2012 Impressions, Japanese Gardens Gallery, Cowra
2005 Behind the scenes Manning Regional Gallery, Taree
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Selected Group Exhibitions
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2023 Feed the Soul, Group Exhibition still life, Armidale.
2022 Still Life, Book Launch Exhibition, Amber Creswell Bell, Michael Reid Northern Beaches, Sydney, Teapots and Hounds, Two Artist Exhibition alongside Lucy Culliton, Manning Regional Gallery, Taree, Moments in Colour, Group Exhibition alongside Joanna Logue, Tim Allen, Justine Muller, and Charmaine Pike, Glasshouse Regional Gallery, Port Macquarie, Christmas Exhibition, Group Exhibition, works on paper, A.K. Bellinger Gallery, Inverell.
2021 Muswellbrook Art Prize, Paper, Muswellbrook Regional Art Gallery, NSW Reciprocity, Broadhurst Gallery, Hazelhurst Arts Center, NSW, Still- National Still Life Award 2021, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW.
2020 BAM Art Prize, Byron Art Magazine, Northern Rivers Community Gallery, Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Art Gallery, Cowra, NSW, Portia Geach Memorial Award S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2019 Memory &Landscape, A.K. Bellinger Gallery, Inverell, Reflections of a fading sky, Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, Riversdale Dreaming, Adelaide Perry Gallery, Sydney, Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Art Gallery, Cowra, NSW, Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize, Bayside Art Gallery, Brighton, Victoria, Outback Art Prize, Outback Regional Art Gallery, Winton, Queensland, Muswellbrook Art Prize (painting section), Muswellbrook Regional Art Gallery
2018 Christmas Exhibition Part 2 A.K Bellinger Gallery, Inverell, Paddington Art Prize Finalists, Sydney, The Way We See Ourselves West End Art Space, Melbourne, Movers & Shapers Women in the Land Hazelhurst Arts Centre, Sydney, Big Country AK Bellinger Gallery, Inverell, Sir John Sulman Art Award Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, Vase & Vessel curated by Amber Creswell Bell Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney, Works on Paper section of the Muswellbrook Art Prize, Muswellbrook
2017 Still’s Art Prize Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, The Design File’s Open House Melbourne], Semi Finalist Doug Moran Portrait Prize on line exhibition, Black Swan Portrait Prize, Perth WA State Gallery, Christmas Exhibition, A.K Bellinger Gallery, Inverell, Spring, The Happen Store, Annandale, Sydney, Ode, Collab Gallery, Chippendale, Sydney, An Unguarded Moment, A.K Bellinger Gallery, Inverell, At Home, Birds Gallery, Melbourne, Pen Line + Paint, 220 Creative Space, Woolloomooloo Sydney, Still & Private Lives, A.K Bellinger Gallery, Inverell, Muswellbrook 44th Art Prize, Painting and Drawing
2016 Semi Finalist Doug Moran Portrait Prize online exhibition, Fundraising Event Dominik Mersch Gallery, Master exhibition NAS Gallery, Clay Gulgong Wool Shed Gulgong, Adelaide Perry Prize for drawing, PLC Adelaide Perry Gallery, Sydney
2015 Hurford Hardwood Portrait Prize, Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore, Paddington Art Prize, Woollahra, Sydney, Naked & Nude Manning Art Prize, Manning Regional Art Gallery, Taree, Five Years On, Articulate Project Space, Sydney
2013 The Nature of Things, Jean-Bellette Gallery, Hill End, Semi Finalist Doug Moran Portrait Prize on line exhibition
2012 National Art School Postgraduate Exhibition, National Art School, Sydney, Dobell Drawing Prize, New South Wales Art Gallery, Sydney, Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery
2011 Blake Prize - National Art School Gallery & touring regional galleries, Gosford Art Prize, Gosford Regional Gallery, Gosford, Talls, River Bank Gallery, Canowindra, Flanagan Art Prize, St. Patrick’s College, Ballarat, Lachlan Valley Art Award Exhibition, Cowra Regional Art Gallery, Cowra
2009 Local Artists Exhibition The Hub Art Gallery Grenfell, Yellow Brick Road, Rose Street Theatre Space, Grenfell
2007 Group Show 4A At Gallery Sydney, Kempsey Shire Art Prize Kempsey
2006 Two Artist Show, James Harvey Gallery, Clovelly, Port Macquarie Art Society Show Portrait Competition, Port Macquarie
2005 Emerging Artists, Newport Artworks Gallery, Newport, Port Macquarie Easter Art Exhibition, Portrait section, Civic Centre Port Macquarie ( Highly Commended ), Alice out of the book, Port Macquarie Regional Art Gallery Foyer Space, Port Macquarie
2004 Home Exhibition, Newtown Gallery, Sydney, Little Worlds, The Stairwell Gallery, National Art School, Sydney, The Cell Block Exhibition, National Art School, Sydney, The Stairwell Portraits, The Stairwell Gallery, National Art School, Sydney, Zooman Art Exhibition, Dubbo - Adelaide Swift Art Award, South West Rocks
2001 Walkom Manning Art Prize, Manning Regional Art Gallery, Taree
1999 Won, Wingham Art Exhibition, Wingham, Home studio Exhibition, Braddon, ACT
1998 Taree Art Exhibition, Information Centre, Taree
1997 Strange Bedfellows, Two artist Exhibition, Bungendore
Artist Residency
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2021 Hazelhurst Arts Center, studio Residency
2019 PLC, Adelaide Perry Gallery Sydney
2015 The Butchery, Hill End NAS Studio
2014 The Butchery, Hill End NAS Studio
2013 The Butchery, Hill End NAS Studio
2012 The Butchery, Hill End NAS Studio
Collections
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Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW
PLC Adelaide Perry Gallery Sydney
Muswellbrook Regional Gallery
Publications
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2021 Galah, Issue 4, Galah Press
2021 STILL LIFE, by Amber Creswell Bell, Thames and Hudson
2021 Reciprocity, by Gareth Jenkins, Apothecary Archive
2020 Look Magazine July- August
2019 Look Magazine January-February, The Theatrical Eye catalogue poetry response by Gareth Jenkins for the Muswellbrook Arts Centre Exhibition
2018 Shout Out to The Girls Penguin Publishing - Illustration of Nora Heysen,
Art Almanac September issue , Art Almanac November issue
On Line
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2020 The Design Files, Art Collector Magazine, Art Monthly Magazine
2019 Talking with Painters interview Episode 66