Gabrielle Courtenay’s life is a commitment to painting…After so many years teaching others to paint, make and create, Courtenay now teaches us to see and through seeing, feel and experience the world...to move the energy of the painting to a ‘more universal space of landscape and time’. . Courtenay drives herself in the pursuit of painterly success; her goal to really move her audience; to move herself through the act of painting. If we are careful and attentive to what she offers us, we will indeed be moved, and our perception of space and our bodies, and the energy within them, will be changed as a result” Jackie Dunn 2005 White Lines catalogue essay excerpt
“For many years now, Courtenay’s work has illustrated an evolution of thought, consistently exploring familiar narratives of mythology, cultural history, spirituality and the feminine. These works present isolated symbols, motifs, scenes and metaphorical images in close proximity to one another, often overlaid on sparse galactic landscapes; Courtenay is intrinsically motivated by the ever-complicated circumstances of the 21st century global community, exploring issues of population growth, the shrinking availability of natural resources, pollution, trade, the role of religion, and leadership power balances…. she creates from a place of spiritual understanding and exploration”
Charlotte Tegan Phosphoresce catalogue essay excerpt
ABOUT
Contrasting to most Australian artists who emerge straight from art school. Courtenay cut her aesthetic teeth in commercial and public art. Trained in Architecture Courtenay moved across different areas of commercial and public art. Including years as Art Educator, designer/ painter on numerous Commercial and Mural Art Projects, Australia and overseas, Art Consultant at Artbank, the National Art Rental Collection and Interior Designer.
Since 2004 the experiences of time alone in contemplation and artistic activity inspired by being immersed in the unique environments of various Art Residencies in Australia's Outback and a Beijing Red Gate Residency in 2010 have directly informed her art practice. Her understanding of the scale of our global problem of climate change and pollution became vividly real in her 2006 COFA Iliri Artist Scholar Residency at Fowlers Gap during the millennium drought, intensified in 2010 living in an artist compound in Bei Gao breathing in coal dust. This message reinforced by her most recent 2020 The Art Vault Residency at Mildura. The words ‘where there is water is life” became a living reality to her. Experiencing driving there in drought conditions, at Mildura documenting the ancient river gums with their scars of fire, lightning and flooding on the banks of the Murray; then returning driving through an almost unrecognizable landscape physically transformed by rain.
Gabrielle Courtenay
Biography
Artist born Sydney, Australia
Lives in Sydney Australia
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2018 Traces 2018 ARO, Sydney
2017 Traces Jan Manton Art, Brisbane
2015 Phosphoresce William Street Studio, Paddington Sydney
2013 Navigating Dark Waters Anita Traverso Gallery, Melbourne
2012 Wunderkammer Series Block Projects, Melbourne
2012 Journey to ‘no man’s land’ James Dorahy Project Space, Sydney
2011 Colliding Worlds Depot 11 Gallery, Danks St. Waterloo
2009 Chasing Tumbleweed Anita Traverso Gallery, Melbourne
2008 EDGE Charles Hewitt Gallery, Sydney
2007 EDGE Anita Traverso Gallery, Melbourne
2006 White Lines Bathurst Regional Gallery
2006 Penumbra Mary Place Gallery. Paddington Sydney
2005 White Lines Mary Place Gallery. Paddington Sydney
2005 White Lines SPAN Galleries, Melbourne
2003 New Painting SPAN Galleries, Melbourne
2002 Allure Bark Modern Art, Hong Kong
Selected Group Exhibitions and Finalist in Competitions
2020 2020 Glover Art Prize Evandale, Tasmania
2020 Fisher Ghost Art Award 2020 Campbelltown Arts Centre, NSE
2020 Blacktown Arts Prize The Leo Kelly Blacktown Art Centre
2019 Fisher Ghost Art Award 2020 Campbelltown Arts Centre, NSW
2019 2019 ANL Art Prize Mission to Seafarers Victoria
2016 Redland Art Award 2016 Redland Art Gallery, QLD
2016 John Leslie Art Prize Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, VIC
2016 39th Alice Art Prize Araluen Arts Centre, NT
2016 Bruny Island Art Prize Alonnah Hall, Allonnah, Bruny Island TAS
2014 Tidal.14 City of Devonport Art Award Devonport Regional Gallery, TAS
2014 Platform 2014 Metro Arts Gallery Brisbane
2014 Paddington Art Prize National Council of Jewish Women’s Hall NSW
2012 Mosman Art Prize Mosman Art Gallery, NSW
Art Residencies
2020 Art Vault Artist in Residence Program Mildura NSW
2013 Visual Artist Genre Leader- Artology Remix Project Performance AGNSW
2011 Hill End Artist in Residence Program Haeflingers Cottage, Hill End, NSW
2010 Red Gate Gallery Residency Program Beijing, China
2008 ‘6 x 6’ Artists Connecting Community Project, Beyond Empathy, Moree, NSW
2006 Iliri Artist Scholar Program Residency Ochre House, Fowlers Gap
2005 Bundanon Trust Artist in Residence Program Bundanon, Shoalhaven, NSW
2004 Hill End Artist in Residence Program Haeflingers Cottage, Hill End
Collections
Artbank, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery New Norcia Gallery Collection Bundanon Trust,
Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, The Art Vault, Private Collections domestic and international
Collections Selected Reviews and Articles
2016 ‘The Ones to Watch’ ART/EDIT Winter 2016,
2014 ‘Expect the Unexpected’ U on Sunday, Sunday Mail 24 Aug 14
2012 ‘Cabinet of Curiosity’ Vogue Living Sept/Oct 12
2011 Sydney Morning Herald, Open Gallery, Spectrum, Lynne Dwyer
“Colliding Worlds’ March 12-13,2011
2008 ‘Desert of the Real’ Anne Lin, Arts, Time Out 16-22 April