Exhibitions
Recent Exhibitions
Cerulean Currents
Solo Exhibition at Boom Gallery
25th January - 18th February 2024
Jen Tarry-Smith's debut solo exhibition at Boom continues the artist's exploration of 'line' and the infinite potential it offers. A prolific and committed artist, Jen's practice moves between the different modes of printmaking - from lithographs to linoprints and etching.
For Cerulean Currents, Jen has also progressed into painting, her mesmerising and highly detailed mark making now also in oil paint on linen.
ARTIST STATEMENT
"Humans have a tendency to observe patterns everywhere; from microscopic patterns to a cosmic scale, patterns in our natural environment, in the behaviour of plants and animals, in sound, in smell, in time, in human behaviour and in man-made objects. This recognition of pattern allows us to make sense of our world and to predict what is to come. I am drawn to the intricacies and nuances that emerge as pattern evolves and changes to suit its environment. It is these subtle differences that distinguish the hand-made from machine-made, and highlights the beauty in the imperfect.
Cerulean Currents is a documentation of the shifting tides and changing natural patterns along the Bellarine Peninsula. These patterns are a tapestry woven from the elemental forces that shape our Earth; from the dance of wind-waves across the ocean's surface to the intricate symmetry of rock formations etched by time. They encompass the mesmerising allure of fractals and spirals, echoing the rhythmic cadence of seasonal transitions.
Like a view glimpsed with half closed eyes, the exhibition is the culmination of impressions formed by the senses whilst by my favourite place to watch the ocean. Each line is a response to the curves and crevices that come before it, and attempts to capture the quality of light, the depth of shadow, the shapes and lines, textures, the smells and fragments of sound and the essence that form our impressions and constitute our memories of this location. The essence of this location is distilled into each artwork - a shadowy imprint of the spirit that pervades this place."
Tracing Change
Modern Times Group Exhibition
16th November- 5th December 2023
My paintings “Wave Swash” and “Seaward Flow” delve into the profound impact of climate change on our environment, specifically focusing on the evolving patterns along our coastlines. I am intrigued by the intricate relationship between erosion and changing weather conditions. Central to these works is the depiction of the moment when a wave swash meets the shoreline, symbolizing nature's fragility and resilience. Subsequently, the backwash, as it retreats into the depths of the sea, plays a significant role in shoreline erosion, a process increasingly susceptible to the influences of climate change. These paintings act as a visual call to action, urging us to appreciate and protect our delicate ecosystems in the face of these shifting natural patterns.
Dulux Australia Colour Forecast 2024
Jen Tarry-Smith X Crumble
The Lagoona Plinth
I am drawn to humankind's tendency to observe patterns everywhere; from minute impressions, through to the patterns in the universe, patterns in our natural environment, in the behaviour of plants and animals, in sound, in smell, in time, in human behaviour and in man made objects. This recognition of pattern allows us to make order in our world and to predict what is to come
The hand-painted design on this plinth is a reaction to this, and a meditative exploration of line and negative space. The act of laying down lines and leaving spaces is an ongoing, intuitive process. Each line deviates a little from the line that came before it, and gradually morphs into curves and crevices that form larger shapes and contortions.
I really love Crumble’s ethos of using recycled materials to create long-lasting designs. Preserving and protecting our natural environment is of great importance to me and is a huge inspiration in my own practice.
The Lagoona Plinth attempts to capture human intuition; a capsule of moments in time, decisions and reactions, and inhabits patterns found in our natural world, in rippling water, rocks formations and flora and fauna.
Subtle Realms
Modern Times
20th April- 4th May 2023
Modern Times is delighted to present Subtle Realms, a group exhibition bringing together three distinct Melbourne artists. Printmaker – Jennifer Tarry-Smith, ceramicist – Hilary Green, and painter – Ria Green.
Each artist, working in their own unique medium, and approaching their practice from completely different perspectives, realise work that brings forth an internal sensory experience into a physical form. Each work reflects a physical process guided by intuition.
Tarry-Smith reflects on the intricacies of improvised jazz music. Encoding her emotional response to the merging of pattern and chaos through repetitive swirling linework that oscillates between the organic and the positively psychedelic. Similarly, Hilary Green’s sculpted ceramic forms are also dynamic and alive. Familiar forms are twisted into surreal representations that transcend the mundane into the realms of ‘magic domesticity’. Amongst her works, candle-holders formed as rock-like stacks in a perfect balance, or twirling ceramic coral that feels as though it’s been frozen in time in the sweep of a current.
Also translating moments of wonderment, Ria Green’s abstract paintings are channeled via a deep engagement with the natural world – incorporating dirt, clay and natural materials sourced directly from the land itself. Through a mysterious alchemy combining materials, colour palette and technique, Ria Green captures nature’s fleeting moment’s, those experienced amongst nature that you’re unable to grasp.
Subtle Realms is an exhibition with a spiritual and ethereal dimension that can be experienced through direct engagement with the aesthetics and physical output of this deeply thoughtful group of artists. Together these artists present us with a sensational collection of work that explores a myriad of soft hues, undulating forms and a spectrum of textures.
https://moderntimes.com.au/blogs/journal/in-the-gallery-subtle-realms?_pos=16&_sid=86ba8a327&_ss=r
A Gentle Unwinding
Group Exhibition
Modern Times
17th November - 10th December 2022
Editions 22 Print Prize
Tacit Gallery
11th - 28th May 2022
.png)
Flow State
Boom Gallery
26th May- 19th June 2022
Group Exhibition: Flow State, Group Exhibition - Boom Gallery
A group exhibition of 2D and 3D work, featuring Jen Tarry-Smith, Morgana Celeste and Jarnah Montersino.
Flow State explores the significance of process when making art. Exploration, trial and error and finding that flow all come before the final outcome we see in an exhibition.
Megalo Lithography Online Exhibition
Megalo Print Studio
29 October - 17 December 2021
 |  |  |
|---|
Radiant Dreams
Modern Times
18th November- 9th December 2021
Group Exhibition: Radiant Dreams (moderntimes.com.au)
'For this exhibition, we invited our artist community, as well as some new faces, to unleash their most vibrant work and embrace colour, movement and verve. Responses have been broad and reflect each artist’s practice as well as their personal approach to the challenges of isolation and restriction.'
Ripple
12th August-5th September 2021
Boom Gallery, Geelong, AUSTRALIA
Ripple brings together a group of emerging artists who use immersive processes to create abstract distillations focussing on line and form. Working over multidisciplinary practices each artist produces a unique body of work with similarities between the artists to be found in the processes and mediums of creation.
Each work is a meditative exploration where the respective artist becomes so enthralled in the process of making their artwork that time and place no longer matter. Whether applying layer after layer of paint, weaving together fine strips of paper, methodically layering clay coils or carving and drawing repetitive patterns of lines, each process becomes labor intensive and time consuming, but is resolved as the final mark is made.
The image emerges as the artist creates; the final form is not planned but dictated by an intuition of line and shape that constantly changes and evolves.
Resist Relief
2021
No Vacancy Gallery, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
RESIST/RELIEF takes the technical language of making, conceptualising this process to create a duality between these two forms.
The RESIST technique exposes and endures, withstanding corrosive agents to continually occupy space. Acts of resistance, however, require us to practice self-care. RELIEF techniques carve out a space that offers clarity and calm.
The artists in this exhibition have responded to this theme through works that reflect acts of resistance; be they highly visible social issues that are crying for action, or smaller acts of everyday resistance that would otherwise go unseen.
Inversely, artists have considered the ways in which we look after ourselves within resistance. This has taken the form of whatever acts of self-care mean or look like to them.
Chromatic Retreat
2021
Modern Times, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Chromatic Retreat showcases the work of 17 Australian artists exploring their practice within the limits of a largely achromatic palette.
'Jennifer’s artworks spring from the junction between the discipline of her chosen medium and the almost unconscious, meditative state that drives her image making process.
Printmaking is imperative to Jennifer’s practice and the imagery is derived from the use of black and white, or line and negative space.
When creating her work the mark-making, the processing of the plate and the proofing stages before printing are all done in black, just as the first lithographs were made. Jennifer’s prints originate from greyscale; the addition of colour, if it is used, comes later.'
Quintessence: Belinda Reid and Jennifer Tarry-Smith
2021
Firestation Print Studio, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Jennifer Tarry-Smith and Belinda Reid are Melbourne based artists. They are recent graduates of the VCA, both working in the medium of print. They have exhibited nationally and internationally and have works held in both public and private collections.
Both artists work with the essence of place, imbuing their work with impressions that constitute memories. Belinda intuitively deconstructs and reconstructs imagery through digital, print and weaving processes. Jen’s work is a meditative exploration of line and negative space; her attention to repetitive processes are also inherent in printmaking.
Quintessence is an embodiment of memory that spans person, time and geographical distance.
You can read about the show in a Q&A for Imprint Magazine by Andrew Stephens here
Lethbridge Small Scale Art Award 20000
2021
Lethbridge Gallery, Queensland, AUSTRALIA
The Lethbridge Art Award is open to national and international artists for small-scale artworks. Entrants may submit 2D or 3D artworks up to 61cm (24 inches) in height, width or depth.
Talismans, Rafts, Mementos
Group Show
2020
Modern Times, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Talismans, Rafts, Mementos, showcases the work of the entire community of Modern Times artists – both new and old, emerging and established – with over 150 works by 57 artists that span painting, photography, ceramics and sculpture.
Ravenswood Australian Women's Art Prize
2020
Ravenswood, NSW, AUSTRALIA
The Ravenswood Australian Women's Art Prize is an annual acquisitive prize that was launched in 2017 to advance art and opportunity for emerging and established women artists in Australia. It is the highest value professional artist prize for women in Australia
Editions
2020
Tacit Gallery, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
'Editions continues to grow exponentially in status as the place to go regarding print exhibitions in Melbourne - the largest annual curated group exhibition in the State. We once again more than 50 Victorian-based printmakers (52 to be precise) with more than 150 works at the eighth edition of Editions.'
'We continue to strive to celebrate the diverse aesthetic qualities inherent within printmaking media, a celebration of tradition whilst embracing contemporary innovations within the printed form. And whilst we have said it before, it is worth repeating. An established exhibition of such scale provides a safe platform for artists ranging from emerging to more established to explore new and exciting print processes and approaches to image-making. That platform also provides the opportunity to exhibit multiple works from current practice, providing audiences a greater understanding and insight of where the printmaker is ‘coming from’. And having featured intaglio, relief and lithography in a range of substrates and printed on a range of surfaces covering diverse subjects, those audiences have been challenged in their understanding of what exactly is a ‘print’.'
Long Way Round
2020
Blackcat Gallery, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
