Tricking the eye at the Art Gallery of Ballarat

Vorticist 2, 2004, Acrylic and oil on linen, 122 x 91 cm (installation view)

Purchased with funds from the Colin Hicks Caldwell Bequest, 2005

After quite a long hiatus, Vorticist 2 is again on view at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. (For part of that time it was on tour with the 2008 survey exhibition Deborah Klein - Out of the Past 1995-2007). This time around it has been placed in an entirely different context, as part of an exhibition focusing on Photorealist and Trompe l’oeil works from the gallery’s permanent collection.

Although figurative, Vorticist 2 is not based on a specific source, photographic or otherwise. The work is principally an invention, so it’s intriguing to see it placed in this company. But then recurrently my pictures of anonymous women are also classified erroneously as portraits, despite the fact that I refer to them collectively as Non-Portraits. Then again, I’ve always maintained that my work remains open to individual interpretation…

Two paintings by my partner Shane Jones, which unquestionably fit the Trompe l’oeil category, are also included in the exhibition.