CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Karlee Rawkins

Congratulations to Karlee Rawkins for winning the 2019 Mosman Art Prize Margaret Olley Commendation Award

Based in the beautiful mid-north coast of New South Wales, Rawkins has a vast and rich landscape full of luscious plant and fauna specimens to influence her practice, yet her creative mind meanders as she seeks to create her own exotic kingdom.

Building upon painted layers of patterning, scribbling, line and colour, compositions arise within an intuitive act of mark making. Patterns are derived from plants and flowers that have been used in Indian design for centuries, with noted Buddhist and Hindu sites dating back to the third century BC. It is drawing from her surrounds and by mimicking the patterning to which she is exposed, Rawkins is enabled to construct her own unique dreamt oasis. She describes her use of pattern as an aid in the creation of ambiguity within her compositions; she also directly references historical repetition from ancient religious decoration and design.

Karlee Rawkins 'Never Never River'Artist Talk February 2015 from Flinders Lane Gallery on Vimeo.

Rawkins says of her practice, 'I use animal imagery in my work as a metaphor for human emotions and experiences. The animals are distorted and flattened, often combining with pattern to create intentionally ambiguous compositions. I aim to emphasize the vulnerability and awkwardness of my subject and challenge a viewers recognition and sense of association.'

The metamorphic characteristics of her devised creatures are reflected in the transformative nature of the river which many of them inhabit. Lotus flowers bloom and wilt while their roots tangle with the changing of the current, turtles wade through and feed from the shallows which rise and fall, and birds circulate the air above, following the river from its source to the sea.

Attracted to the ways in which pattern and line intersect with form and colour Rawkins’ skilfully integrates discernible representation with subtle abstraction. Pointed ears become daring triangles, nimble legs yield to their verticality and wings splay out to form intersecting globes across the picture plane. This dexterous sense of composition and lively mark making is captivating, revealing both child-like veneration and sophisticated appreciation for the form and character of her subjects. Thus Rawkins’ paintings hold within them a range of concerns from the personal to the global, questioning our relationship to nature and more broadly to themes of mortality and even extinction.

Rawkins trained at Southern Cross University and has exhibited extensively since 1994. In 2003 she was the recipient of The Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship and in 2004 she held a 5 months residency at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France. In 2019 she won the Mosman Art Prize Margaret Olley Commendation Award, was a finalist in the Clayton Utz Award (2019, 2018), the Korea-Australia Arts Foundation (2016) and the Prometheus Art Award (2007, 2005). Her work is held in the collections including that of Maitland Regional Art Gallery and the Art Gallery Of NSW.

CATALOGUE ESSAYS
Never Never River, by Melanie Caple 2015
The Wild Fox Garden, by Phe Luxford 2012
Dark Wood Land, by Phe Luxford 2011

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Golden Pheasant, The Painted Bird 2019
acrylic and charcoal on cotton
167cm x 213cm
$8,800 AUD

Lady Leopard 2018
acrylic and charcoal on cotton
137cm x 152cm Finalist in the 2019 Clayton Utz Award
$6,400 AUD

Harvest Dragon 2019
acrylic and charcoal on cotton
152cm x 137cm
$6,400 AUD

Tiger Tribe 2019
acrylic on canvas
121cm x 137cm Winner of the Margaret Olley Commendation at Mosman Art Prize 2019
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