Verena Marmion – “Closed Pose” Exhibition – 19th February to 3 March, 2021
Kent St Gallery, Victoria Park
Register for Opening Friday 19th February, 5 – 7 pm via Eventbrite
(Covid19 Venue Requirements)
Verena Marmion is a Melbourne-born artist who has worked in Western Australia since 2010, both as an artist and art teacher. Her art is primarily of figures and portraits.
Underlying her work is a fascination in movement, body language, gender and feminine identity
“Verena, an artist, a mother, a teacher, a spouse and an academic confidently sees art through her multiple identities – free from the stereotypes of each and allows each identity to encompass and enrich her experiences as an artist researcher.
The women in the paintings in this exhibition are nude, but their nakedness is not simply a statement. It shows us they are the figures of living women in their self-reflective moments – feminine with sensitivity, strength, sensuality and with a capacity for complexity and confidence, in their closed poses.
These expressive messages are conveyed free from underlying societal expectations and through Verena’s paintings they simply act as invitations to viewers to explore and to connect with the emotions of the painter, and together to construct further the discourse of gender and art in the 21st century.”
Chia-Mei Jane Coughlan
PhD. Cambridge; MEd. UWA
December 2020, W.A
Two of the main ways to characterise the poses of a life drawing model are ‘open’ and ‘closed’. Open is where the model is bold, extroverted and direct; engaged in their surroundings.
In closed pose the model tends to be hunched with limbs bent or wrapped about the body. Closed poses present an inwardly focused, contemplative demeanour- imbued with depth and intrigue.