CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Janne Kearney

Janne Kearney has most recently been announced as one of 53 finalists out of 2,500 entries from 87 countries in the prestigious international BP Portrait Award at London's National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition will show at the Portrait Gallery from 22 June - 24 September 2017 before embarking on a tour around Britain. The exhibition showcases the very best in contemporary portrait painting, with a prize pool totalling $105,000 AUD.

Predominately a figurative and portrait artist, Janne Kearney's paintings ask the viewer to disregard preconceived perceptions of people, society and at times reality. Each painting invites you to contemplate, reflect, and reminisce; they are profound, evocative and sometimes humorous. The works are full of texture and color created in a contemporary realist manner and could be described as iconoclastic. They challenge or overturn traditional beliefs, customs, and values, consciously utilizing both traditional and innovative techniques, her work explores retro and neo kustome culture.

At first glance, the most extraordinary paintings are photographically perfect renderings of young people, with black backdrops. Each delicate figure has angelic skin, realistic hair and hauntingly beautiful eyes. They wear expressions of sweet, ethereal adoration, with hearts radiating from their chests, into neon stars and fireworks. Love is in the air. The works are captivating, but when viewed through 3D glasses, the real magic occurs. Elements in some of the oil paintings actually appear to jump off their canvasses. It was impossible to stifle my gasp when I first experienced the visual punch from Kearney’s 3D pieces. The cleverly disguised brilliance was accomplished with regular brushes, paint and some inventive mastery. “I create each piece to look like a stand alone painting, but special effect glasses split the images into three planes of depth for a 3D experience, without the fuzzy-edged look of traditional 3D images,” Kearney said.

It’s easy to see why she was a 2015 finalist with Miasma, in the internationally renowned BP Portrait Awards in London. The piece features in her most recent solo exhibition, which communicates the experiences of young love and displacement, set against urban decay. While Dystopia (meaning noxious grunge, fear and hopelessness) sounds depressing, the pieces are uplifting, beautifully rendered representations of yearning for belonging. A rainbow motif runs throughout each piece, uniting them as a series. The diverse colours of the rainbow represent inclusivity, tolerance and acceptance in ancient traditions, and recent Western culture.
Excerpt from article by Jodie Whittaker, 2015

Kearny has exhibited widely and has an impressive award history. She most recently was a finalist in the Glencore Percival Portrait Painting Prize, the Wyndham Art Prize, Lethbridge Art Prize and the Stanthorpe Art Prize. In 2015, Kearny was a finalist in the Kennedy Prize, a semi-finalist in the Doug Moran, a semi-finalist in the BP Portrait Prize London, and a finalist in the 2015 Geelong College Art prize. She is a four-time finalist in the Calleen Art Award (2016, 2012, 2011, 2010) and has been a finalist in the Black Swan Portrait Prize, the Linden Postcard Show and the Portia Geach Portrait Prize, among many others.

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Run 2017
oil on canvas
100cm x 100cm
$5,000 AUD

86 (rhyming slang for worth nix) 2017
oil on canvas
100cm x 100cm
Finalist in the BP Portrait Prize 2017 London

Leap of Faith 2017
oil on linen
122cm x 76cm
Sold
Sold

Shattered 2016
oil on canvas
122cm x 76cm
(in artists studio)
$5,000 AUD

Dream Girl 2017
oil on canvas
100cm x 100cm
(This painting can also be viewed with 3D glasses)
$5,000 AUD

3D Love 2015
oil on canvas
120cm x 90cm
(This painting can also be viewed with 3D glasses)
$5,000 AUD

Miasma 2015
oil on canvas
95cm x 95cm
Semi-finalist BP Portrait Award, London
Finalist in Corangamarah Art Prize 2016
(in artists studio)
$4,500 AUD