CATHERINE CASSIDY
is a Sydney-based artist, born in Ballarat, Victoria.Educated at Melbourne's RMIT and at the National Art School Sydney, she was awarded a Master of Fine Art in Painting in 2011 with a body of work and thesis on a Re-Appraisal of Metonymy in Contemporary Landscape Response. She has been a finalist in many state and national awards including
the Paddington Art Prize, AGNSW Dobell Drawing Prize, NSW Parliament House Plein-Air Painting Prize, Portia Beach Portrait Award and The National Works on Paper Award 2014 when her work was acquired for the permanent collection of Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery.
Catherine has held regular solo and group shows in Sydney and in 2017 was invited to join 10 French contemporary abstractionists in Subito Presto 2 at Progress Gallery Paris: "Catherine Cassidy's work has a bravura carried by its daubed and scribbled marks. Bold, dense, delicious. You can see the joy of her hand, the sure and deliberate erasures. She is brave, fearless, never afraid of clumsiness, prettiness, awkwardness or the wayward irreverence of childhood."
'I see my work as undeniably of this country but I also want it to come from another place, a place where I imagine all the original forms of the world must congregate, a giant meeting-place with things talking with each other. I want to go there when I paint and choose those things that step forward as bright, new signifiers of landscape. So, although initially, I work intimately, plein-air, in some very remote and challenging places, I see myself sitting in two worlds, I look one way and see things as they appear, then another way and see them becoming something else, something that hasn't been seen yet. I like to work with big elemental things, light, air and space and I hope my work will become even more primal and inventive, to see how far back can take natural forms without losing a necessary connection. I like paint and its mad mistakes and in the end I'm just chasing the best, most communicative image I can make."
Born: Ballarat Victoria
Education: Graphic Design RMIT Melbourne.
Assoc.Dip. St GeorgeCollege Sydney
Master of Fine Art - Painting, National Art School Sydney
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017 Art2Muse Gallery Sydney miao miao
2016 Crawford Gallery Sydney DeepField
2015 Art2Muse Gallery Sydney Underneath A Plain Thing
2014 Art2Muse Gallery Sydney Supernatural Paintings from The Gulf
2014 Chapter House Lane Gallery Melbourne Calling
2012 Ann Snell Gallery Sydney New Work
2010 National Art School Project Space FAR
2007 Sara Roney Gallery Sydney Westworld Paintings from Lake Mungo
2006 Sara Roney Gallery Sydney South Coast Paintings
2006 Sara Roney Gallery Sydney Finke River Series
2005 ArtSydney05 Independent Artists Showcase
2001 Hazelhurst Regional Gallery South Paintings and Drawings
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 Progress Gallery Paris Subito Presto2
2017 Paddington Art Prize
2017 Walcha Gallery Catherine Cassidy and Louise Tuckwell New Work
2017 Despard Gallery Hobart 'At Bull Bay' Bruny Island residency artists.
2016 Paddington Art Prize Sydney
2015 Paddington Art Prize Sydney
2015 Galeria Giulia Rome The Kangaroos Visit
2015 Kogarah Cultural Centre Art and The Land
2015 Kogarah Cultural Centre Kogarah Art Prize
2014 Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery Victoria National Works on Paper
2014 Mosman Art Prize
2013 Damien Minton Gallery Sydney Low Relief
2013 Danks Street Depot 2 Gallery Sydney
2012 Mosman Art Prize
2010 Paddington Art Prize
2010/2009 NSW Parliament House Plein-Air Painting Prize
2010 Mary Place Gallery Sydney Lake Eyre and Beyond
2001/05/07 Hazelhurst Regional Gallery Lake Mungo: Interpreting Land,Works on Paper,Southern Exposure.
2000/04/06 S.H.Ervin Gallery Sydney Portia Geach Portrait Award
2000 Art Gallery of New South Wales Dobell Drawing Prize
AWARDS and ACQUISITIONS
2017 Awarded Paddington Art Prize Artist Retreat Prize
2015 Awarded Paddington Art Prize Artist Retreat Prize
2014 Acquisition for the Permanent Collection of Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
form the National Works on Paper Awards