SYDNEY.- Jenny Watson: The Fabric of Fantasy, the most comprehensive exhibition of the work by leading Australian artist Jenny Watson opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia on 5 July 2017.

Curated by Anna Davis, the survey brings together more than 100 paintings, prints and drawings and encompassing over 45 years of Watson’s practice.

Intertwining autobiography and fiction, Watson’s work features a recurring cast of characters, self-portraits and alter egos that appear in everyday settings and dreamlike scenarios. Many are painted on collected fabric during the artist’s travels and include found objects and collaged materials such as horsehair, ribbons, buttons and sequins.

MCA Director, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE said: “Jenny Watson’s works are witty, moving and provocative combing autobiography and fiction. We’re thrilled to be presenting this major exhibition to give visitors a greater understanding of the important role her work plays in the history of contemporary painting.”

MCA Curator, Anna Davis said: “Jenny Watson has remained true to her ideas over time and continues to vigorously pursue her conceptual painting practice in an impressive career that stretches over more than four decades.”

Describing Watson’s work, Davis added: “The relationship between text and image is central to the artist’s paintings. In her early works, language fragments are often added into a singular composition, while many of her more recent paintings include a separate panel of handpainted text alongside a larger image.

Initially working from photographs in a realistic style, Watson became motivated by her encounters with feminism and punk in the 1970’s, turning to her immediate and inner life for inspiration and beginning to develop the spontaneous style of painting she continues to work in today. This was a time when much of the art world was dominated by male artists. The feminist art movement reinforced her ideas that female experiences were a legitimate artistic subject matter. Female characters from literature, movies and television – Alice in Wonderland, Ophelia, Cinderella, Charlie’s Angels, Scarlett O’Hara – have also animated her paintings over the years.

Music has played an important role throughout Watson’s life and work; her early passion for The Beatles in the 1960s, the impact of punk and new wave in the 70s and 80s, and her broad appreciation for song lyrics and a great melody have all influenced her work over the years.

Conceptual art, with its focus on ideas and language, has also played a key role in her work, which she describes as ‘post-conceptual painting’. Questions around what it means to paint and ‘what constitutes a painting’ fuel her practice, as does an examination of how our everyday thoughts influence how we look at art. By filtering the life and dreams of a self-proclaimed ‘suburban girl’ through a conceptual lens, her work explores the relationship between our inner worlds and outer experiences.

Alongside her art practice, Jenny Watson is a ‘competent rider’ and ‘occasional horse trainer, riding teacher and amateur breeder’. This equine side of her life not only gives her pleasure but acts an ongoing source of artistic inspiration. While some of the horses Watson paints represent dream images and archetypes, others reflect her experiences with actual horses.”

The exhibition is complemented by a richly illustrated publication featuring an extensive curatorial essay by Anna Davis, commissioned texts on various aspects of the artist’s practice by Rosemary Hawker and David Pestorius, and a fascinating interview with the artist by Louise Neri.

A wide range of public programs will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition, including an artist talk on Saturday 8 July, guided tours, Art Baby sessions, a film screening of Richard Lowenstein’s cult film Dogs in Space (1986) and several specialised creative learning programs for teachers.

The exhibition is free entry and runs from Wednesday 5 July until Monday 2 October 2017 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.