University of Tasmania, Australia

Guest opening speaker: Professor Marie Sierra, Head, Tasmanian College of the Arts
Exhibition opening: 5.30 - 7pm Thursday 31 January
Exhibition curator: Malcom Bywaters, Director, Academy Gallery / NEW Gallery

The artworks produced by Amelia Rowe derive inspiration from responses to the everyday world. The desire to express personal narrative has been an enduring theme in Rowe’s sculptural endeavours. Inspired primarily by retrospection, her artwork strives to offer fresh perspectives on issues such as the practice of animal modification and the construct of femininity. Rowe’s artworks cross the boundaries between the contradictions and discrepancies of real life with the romanticised version that she holds true. Her artworks derive from juxtapositions resulting from passing time, changing culture, evolving attitudes, and reflection that occur within the ‘everyday’.

Amelia Rowe completed a MFA with the University of Tasmania in 2012. In 2009 she was awarded a University Medal for academic excellence. The exhibition represents a cross section of sculptural artworks that showcase Rowe’s research interest in the body as a sculptural medium. In 2012 Rowe has been awarded the University of Tasmania Rosamond McCulloch Studio Residency. The four month residency will see Rowe living and working in Paris in the world-renowned studio complex, the Cité Internationale des Arts.

Just the Shock is presented as part of the Academy Gallery / NEW Gallery Ignition Program. The Ignition Program aims to facilitate the national awareness of Tasmania’s emerging artist’s, craftspeople and designers with a specific emphasis on those within the initial five years of their career. 

_{image credit: Amelia Rowe, Untitled (lambs on pink) detail, 2012}