SHUT ME UP, SHUT ME DOWN SALA 2020 

Domestic violence and child abuse is still considered ‘unmentionable’, ‘taboo’, ‘shameful’, ‘distasteful’ and then Victoria announced its ‘Victim Gagging Order’.

We must not be SHUT UP and SHUT DOWN. Women are speaking out more and more about crimes against them and I must add my voice, a silent voice that is loud and uncomfortable! We must continue to be heard and believed... not gagged.

There has been a surge in domestic violence cases during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Isolated, alone, the home has become a pressure cooker that threatens to explode on a daily basis. I have, like so so many other women, lived with a violent partner. Unlike many I survived and years later I am strong enough to take this subject matter on in my art practice.

It may be uncomfortable for viewers to come face to face with my paintings even if I have softened the blow by excluding visible injuries in these large-scale portraits. I believe the message still comes through loud and clear, maybe more so for the lack of physical signs of the violence perpetrated against the women and children in these works.It is my hope that the paintings in this exhibition will resonate with others who are trapped and that the works might show them that they are acknowledged, heard and believed.

If we keep the discussion open (not silenced and gagged) and educate our children, who knows, maybe we might lower the curve. - Liana Vargas

SHUT ME UP, SHUT ME DOWN
An Exhibition of Large-Scale Portraits by Liana VargasDates: 1st August to 30th September 2020 Where: The Atelier Crafers, 1 Cox Place, Crafers

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact Liana

Mobile Phone: 0408136466

Email: mail@lianavargas.com.au

Artist Statement

My life has been around women. My up bringing was shaped between my Mother who worked hard to support my sister and I, and my Grandmother - my rock.

\When I moved out into the world I became a dancer and again found myself in a predominately female environment. I then taught and employed girls and women to dance with me. Since graduating from art school I have been mentoring and teaching art to mostly female students.

I am drawn to painting women. I want to show what makes us tick. A women’s physiological complexities intrigue me, not so much the physicality, although that too is a driving force behind my paintings. It is the internal, the thought, the quiet pensive moments. This is what drives my art practice. I aim to capture what is going on behind the female public face.

I prefer to photograph the subject and work from that rather than have them sit for me throughout the painting process. Then as I sift through the myriad of photos and after rearranging compositional elements, expressions and positions. It is there within the ‘in-between’, within that space separating each shot and in those gaps that I see the sitter, the woman, the girl, the person most clearly. I find their depth beneath the surface.

BIOGRAPHY

“…I put away my boots and took up the brush.”

I started my creative life as a Flamenco dancer and was fortunate to have performed with great artists throughout Europe, the United States and Central America. After nearly 10 years abroad dancing with highlights which include performances at Sadlers Wells, Royal Albert Hall, The Barbican Centre and as a soloist in Madrid, Mexico City and Los Angeles, I returned home to Australia. During the next few years I established my own flamenco dance theatre company and set up my studio the ‘World Dance Centre’ where I employed dancers from many cultures to give classes and workshops. This was an exciting and busy era filled with many successful productions and tours throughout Australia.

However during this time I felt a great need to expand, to extend myself and my creativity. I had been dancing for nearly 25 years and I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with my dancing life. I had an urge to see what else I could do, to push myself out of my comfort zone, to become new again and revive my life-long love of painting which had been put on hold for my performing career. It was difficult to make this move, one that everyone around me advised against, but the calling was strong and I have never regretted the decision to put away my boots and pick up the brush.

Intensive art training followed. Not long after receiving my degree from the Adelaide Central School of Art in 2012, I was awarded a Winter Artists Residency at the Scuola Internazionale de Grafica in Venice. This was an incredible experience that lasted for 3 months. I gained so much working in the same studio as visual artist Diedre Kelly who is an accomplished and well respected conceptual artist and gallery director based in Venice.

Since then I have studied with some wonderful painters both formally and informally. One painter in particular, Professor Timothy Allen who is based in Rome, has taught me invaluable techniques and expanded my skill set and material knowledge. I have also had the benefit of working at the Duthy Street Art Room over the past few years. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to create alongside Megan Roodenrys and Kate Kurucz, two very accomplished painters who have helped inform my painting.

I do not consider myself an emerging artist however I am still finding my way within this creative industry. Having said that, I do feel that lately I am getting closer to my goal, there is always so much to learn, how wonderful is that?

—Liana Vargas