Fran Romano, 2021. Loculus IV. Midfire ceramic, black stain, underglaze colour, copper leaf + oxide, found housebricks.
OPENING EVENT: Wednesday 17 August from 6:00pm at ANCA Gallery. Free to attend, no bookings required.
of soap and stone brings together the work of 3 early career artists; Kati Gorgenyi, Fran Romano and Melinda Brouwer. Working across mixed-media sculpture and ceramics, they have created an immersive and reflective experience which engages with notions of remembrance, memorialisation and the ephemerality of life. Kati investigates loss and memory; Fran explores the rituals and ephemera surrounding death, and Melinda’s interest lies in death’s material nature.
The exhibition is an investigation into the very human need to create acts of commemoration and remembrance. This social phenomenon appears in some form in all human cultures documented so far and can have educational, healing and cleansing properties. By creating a sense of groundedness and calm, the ritual act opens a space in which to reflect on the duality of life: the tangible and intangible. Commemorative acts and stories connect past, present and future, and can ease grief.
The exhibition experience will be enhanced by an interactive public program. On weekends, artists will encourage gallery visitors to engage with the artworks and themes by making clay votives. These offerings will become part of the exhibition, developing into an ephemeral installation which will remain in the gallery courtyard to decompose. The installation will be documented using time-lapse photography by videographer, Caroline Huff.
Melinda Brouwer’s practice explores the interaction of people and nature using ceramic sculpture. She has been selected for Artisans in the Gardens and Hidden (Rookwood cemetery) exhibitions in Sydney, as well as regional sculpture shows throughout NSW. She recently won the small sculpture award at Lakelight Sculpture (Jindabyne), having previously won the Snowy Monaro Environment Award.
Kati Gorgenyi’s mixed-media sculptures explore intergenerational trauma and its effects on relationships. An early career artist, her work also draws from her professional background as a psychologist. Her sculptures explore vulnerability, trauma, transition and decay. She combines her psychology work with interactive community art where possible, as she considers the role of connectedness and art play in people’s well being.
Fran Romano’s work investigates themes of memory, history and nostalgia through layering, surface texture and imagery. In 2018, she was awarded an Emerging Contemporaries prize from Craft ACT. Recent works explore death rites and rituals from both an archeological perspective and a human one. She was a finalist in the Little Things Art Prize (2018) and the Palliative Care Art Prize (2017); and in 2019, awarded first place for 3D Art in the Foot Square Small Pieces Competition (Brisbane).
Emerging curator, Zoe Slee, completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) in 2014 from ANU School of Art. She is currently working towards her Masters of Art Curation & Cultural Leadership at UNSW.