Girls at Gaffa

Four shows created by female artists and curators land at Gaffa Gallery
Lucy McNabb
Published on July 21, 2017

Overview

The girls are taking over Gaffa Gallery this month. From July 20 all four galleries will be occupied by diverse exhibitions featuring an all-female line-up of artists and curators.

In Gallery 1 you'll see HEY GURL, a group show curated by gallery manager Kimberley Peel. Twenty female-identifying artists use a range of media (everything from puppet-making to photography to audiovisual installations) to respond to issues of identity and gender equality. Over in Gallery 2 is String Line, a solo show by Helen Amanatiadis that presents a series of sculptural and textile works, showcasing intricate techniques for working with string. Amanatiadis considers various types of string – "from fluorescent builders line to soft baby's nylon" – to investigate the significant role that string has played in human evolution and invention.

In Gallery 3 you can check out Amy Elizabeth's solo show Pin up Girl – a series of screen-printed illustrations responding to a resurgence of 1950s pin up culture in contemporary Australian society, and its connection to gender identity and notions of femininity. Finally, in Gallery 4 emerging curator Kristina Neumann draws together six ACT jewellery and object artists who work across a range of media (glass, metal, clay, wood and more) to reference "architecture, the body and the spaces in between."

In explaining the show's origins, Peel says 'We noticed that 75% of our 2016-17 exhibition program artists identify as female. I was first developing my own curatorial endeavour HEY GURL, and then I thought – why not extend this into Gaffa's gallery program?'

All four shows end July 31 so get in quick.

Image: smalltime magic, 'Distance Dialogues' 2017

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