Jacqueline Hennessy

Jacqueline Hennessy

For our final instalment of On Stillness, we have chosen a work by Jacqueline Hennessy who graduated from NAS in 2019 with a Masters of Fine Art (Painting). In her ghostly paintings of female figures, Hennessy explores how to give visual form to her lived experience of being in the world. Her painting process involves staining clear primed Belgian linen with thin washes of raw umber and lead white oil paint.  Hennessy builds her images up over time in transparent layers, gradually developing fragile and ghostly feminine figures that seemingly emerge as they dissolve into the linen support.

The significance of Hennessy’s work lies in its attempt to create painted self-portraits that surpass the autobiographical and deal instead with phenomenological and conceptual concerns about the mystery of beingness.  By setting up a dialogue between painting and photography, Hennessy questions relationships between the two and explores painting’s potential to transcend the descriptive and articulate more complex and enigmatic experiences of being in the world.

Image: Jacqueline Hennessy, How to disappear completely, 2019, oil on linen, 122 x 92 cm, National Art School Collection, acquired through the NAS Collection Fund, 2019 © the artist

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Next Saturday, join us for a fun-filled day of family friendly, free creative activities. There will be sound baths, drop-in artmaking, children's activities, an artists and curators panel talk, followed by dj sets and food trucks. Stick around for after-hours access to the gallery and the Shared Skies Music Concert with BARKAA, Rainbow Chan and DJ Rocky Stallone (ticketed, 18+). 

Visit our website to view the full program (link in bio).

The Neighbour at the Gate has been made possible with the generous support of the NSW Government through its Blockbusters Funding initiative.
Just over a week to go until the 'Shared Skies' music concert featuring BARKAA, "The New Matriarch of Australian Rap" (GQ), and Rainbow Chan, Artist of the Year at the 2022 FBi SMAC Awards. But who’s counting? 👀

🎫 Concession tickets just $25 — link in bio.

@barkaa__
@chunyinrainbowchan

The Neighbour at the Gate has been made possible with the generous support of the NSW Government through its Blockbusters Funding initiative.
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