Jo Chew is kicking off Despard Gallery’s exhibition year with her solo show The Wanderer, the Fool, and the Refuge.
“The Wanderer, The Fool, and The Refuge is a body of work that engages with personal and universal concerns of brokenness and restoration, the need for refuge, and the precarity and transience of that refuge. The act of collaging fragments and images together is central to my practice as a compositional tool, and as a process which is analogous to restoration or mending. Collage, in its ability to cross borders and take imagery and references from elsewhere, mobilises the nomadic or wanderer as emblematic of contemporary life.” – Jo Chew 2019
Jo Chew lives and works in Hobart, her paintings explore ideas of vulnerability, loss, hopefulness and longing. Aware of the absent origin inherent in collage (Krauss), the process of composing many of her paintings through collage harnesses ideas of exile or the nomadic, but also of restoration and mending through bringing together these ‘exiled’ fragments into the new home of the painted space. Chew’s work has been exhibited in Hobart, Launceston, and Sydney; she was the recipient of a 12-month fellowship through ADM in Sydney in 2017; and was a finalist in the Bruny18 and the Henry Jones Art Prize.
Gallery views…
Jo Chew gallery view (sculpture: Guan Wei)
Foyer view: 'The Cloud' (Ed. 3 of 3) by Patrick Hall and Jo Chew painting 'Your Approach'
JO CHEW Damage Series #5 2018/19 oil on canvas 36 x 26 cm $1,150.00 and Mary Scott sculpture The Whimsy Series I 2018, recycled objects, mixed media and paint, 100 cm high $2,500.00
Jo Chew gallery view
Jo Chew gallery view (sculpture by Sara Lindsay)
Jo Chew gallery view
Jo Chew gallery view (sculpture: Mary Scott)
Jo Chew gallery view
Jo Chew gallery view
Jo Chew and Mary Scott Whimsy Series sculpture
Full catalogue….
JO CHEW The Optimist The Fool 2018 acrylic and oil on canvas 197 x 152 cm $5,950.00
JO CHEW Fault Lines, 2017-18 acrylic and oil on canvas, 122 x 122 cm $4,250.00
JO CHEW The Pelican, 2017-18 acrylic and oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm $3,950.00
JO CHEW A Sum of Parts (Port Arthur Peninsula) 2018 acrylic and oil on canvas 107 x 152 cm $4,750.00
JO CHEW The Wanderer, 2018 acrylic and oil on canvas, 152 x 110 cm $4,500.00
JO CHEW Out of place, 2017-18, acrylic and oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm $3,950.00
JO CHEW Waiting (Palmers Lookout, Port Arthur), 2017-18, acrylic and oil on canvas, 100 x 122 cm SOLD
JO-CHEW Baby's blanket 2018 acrylic and oil on canvas 137 x 107 cm $4,375.00
JO CHEW Hiding Place, 2018 acrylic and oil on canvas, 137 x 122 cm $4,650.00
JO CHEW Come Back To Me 2019 acrylic and oil on canvas 81 x 69.5 cm $2,500.00
JO CHEW Your Approach 2019 acrylic and oil on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm $3,950.00
JO CHEW Riderless 2019 acrylic and oil on canvas 152 x 122 cm $4,750.00
JO CHEW The Warrior 2019 acrylic and oil on canvas 92 x 122 cm $3,950.00
JO CHEW #37 Damage Series I 2018/19 oil on canvas 51 x 41 cm $1,650 [framed]
JO CHEW Damage Series #2 2018/19 oil on canvas 51 x 41 cm SOLD
JO CHEW #38 Damage Series III 2018/19 oil on canvas 51 x 41 cm $1,650 [framed]
JO CHEW Damage Series #4 2018/19 oil on canvas 51 x 41 cm $1,650
JO CHEW Damage Series #5 2018/19 oil on canvas 36 x 26 cm SOLD
