Penny Mason, Ice Snap 4, 2023. Image courtesy of Peter Whyte.
Penny Mason
Gallery 3
Friday 29 September - Sunday 22 October
Opening Thursday 28 September, 6pm - 8pm
Night and Day explores instabilities inherent in materials, observations, desire and presence, drawn from Masonโs experiences of places in Tasmania. Contrasting states within these entities are encapsulated in a series of works in which frost-etched watercolours made overnight (as indexes of weather conditions) are paired with works inspired by decorative traditions drawn from the natural environment. Motifs include horizon lines, geological features, boundaries (natural or arbitrary), billowing clouds, forest litter and discarded human belongings.
The weightless character of the compositions recall the constant rearrangement of the physical world by the haphazard processes of natural and human generated events where interrelated components flow together in time and geography.
I think a lot about ideas that circulate around landscape painting; the representation of land, country, sites, territories and views. How places affect me as well as the impact of my presence are concurrent questions.The exhibition title is intended to capture the paradox inherent in my desire to partake of the beauty and variety of our environment and human culture and their inevitable demise at the hands of consumerism (including the pressure of tourism) and disputation over access to resources (colonial warfare). In effect we destroy what we love with what we want. ( Penny Mason, 2023)
About the Artist
Penny Mason has undertaken regular two person and solo exhibitions since first exhibiting at the George Paton Gallery, Melbourne (1977).
Her work is based on recollections of a lifetime of walking in Tasmania; on beaches, rocky shorelines, city margins, dunes, open country and dense bush. Walks that lead to musing on ideas that circulate around the representation of land, country, sites, and views. How places affect her, their history and the impact of her presence are concurrent thoughts.
Her work in the medium of watercolours derives from decorative traditions inspired by the natural environment. Her dispersed compositions suggest the constant rearrangement of the physical world by the haphazard processes of natural and human generated events. She exploits as temperature, gravity, vibration, and frost etching to create surfaces and textures that evoke landscape features and details within.
Recent solo exhibitions include: In Particular โ Recent Works, Blenheim Gallery, Tasmania, (2023), Landscape Details, Wilderness Gallery, Cradle Mountain, (2021) Weather Events, Moonah Art Centre, Contemplations, Sawtooth ARI, Launceston (2018), Floating Worlds, Raft South, Hobart (2016) and Found in Translation, s.p.a.c.e Gallery Launceston, (2014).
She is represented in public collections including, National Gallery of Australia, Art Bank, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Centre for Precision Technology Hobart, Devonport Regional Art Gallery, University of Tasmania as well as national and international private collections.
