Provenance is Renee So’s first major exhibition in Australia, bringing together more than a decade of the London-based artist’s creative output with a series of newly commissioned works. Her ceramics and textiles practice is inspired by art history, museum collections and popular forms of gendered symbolism. It is distinguished by its embrace of traditional crafts, cross-cultural thinking, an underlying sense of the comedic and a persistent feminist worldview.
While So’s early work used motifs of bearded men, full bellies and boots to explore popular archetypes and representations of (mostly) male authority, she has increasingly looked to representations of feminine forms across history. She references 16th and 17th century German Bellarmine jugs in her ‘knitted paintings’ and ceramic objects, exemplifying her approach to museum objects as sources of inspiration.
‘I hope that in the year 2122 the art/craft divide no longer exists, and that we live in a peaceful, tolerant, egalitarian society with climate change no longer a threat to our survival. I’d like the visitor to be surprised that my work is 100 years old, either because they thought it was much older or more recent.’
Renee So is a multimedia artist who playfully observes objects and the stories they accrue over time. She was born in Hong Kong, grew up in Melbourne and now lives in London. Her art practice has evolved to engage conceptually and materially with traditional and ancient craft forms that more often sit outside the short, official histories of modern and contemporary art.
On Bidjigal and Gadigal land
UNSW Galleries
Corner of Oxford St and Greens Rd
Paddington NSW 2021
18 August – 19 November 2023
Wednesday – Friday 10am–5pm
Weekends 12–5pm
