CATHERINE O’DONNELL ‘Beyond the Shadow’ at Grafton Regional Gallery

February 17, 2024

Catherine O’Donnell’s solo survey show ‘Beyond the Shadow’ is on show at Grafton Regional Gallery from to 11.02. – 16.04.23. The exhibition investigates and celebrates the suburban architecture of mid-century social housing in Western Sydney and Regional NSW through a series of exquisite drawings and sculptures from across a decade of Catherine’s career. The show will also include the artist’s first major installation ‘Fibro Majestic’: a 75%-to-scale fibro house that expands upon her ongoing elevation of everyday Australian architecture and social history.

“Through scale and materiality O’Donnell challenges conventions and explores the relationships between the typical architecture of these estates and the utopian ideals that came with them. O’Donnell’s practice poetically captures the beauty of decay and the passage of time,  drawing attention to this often overlooked aspect of the construction style of these homes  – the facade of a  lonely house with a single window and a doorway with flaking paint, a displaced lace curtain evocative with the dust of time, or a Holland blind that has seen better days with its frayed edges and detached fringing.”

This exhibition is a partnership between Orange Regional Gallery and Grafton Regional Gallery, supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation and the Yulgilbar Foundation.

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