Kim WESTCOTT 'OP #1' 2011-2021, Archival inkjet pigment print, 48.3 x 32.9 cm [sheet]
Image:
Kim WESTCOTT
OP #1     2011-2021
archival inkjet pigment print
48.3 x 32.9 cm [sheet]

Kim Westcott
30th Jul – 3rd Oct 2021
Simpson Gallery

The other web is an ambitious new body of work by Kim Westcott. Whilst the works reference nature, including tree trunks, branches, shadows and webforms, there is ‘the other web’, for which the title refers.

The exhibition shows Westcott’s unique visual language—for which she is known—deftly applied across media including sculptural forms, photographs, and large-scale ink paintings.

‘The other web’ is a reference to nature’s connections, interdependence and energy flows, expressed through Westcott’s use of the dot, line and shape. Her images, with the choice of fallen tree limbs and reflections of a forest, are expressions of a deep concern she holds for the environment.

Westcott works from a bushland studio in the Warby-Ovens National Park, and her practice is inspired by her natural surrounds. A keen observer, she operates at a macro and micro level, with works responding to and revealing the light and shadow through Eucalypts at different times of day and across seasons; the expressive form of fallen tree limbs; and delicate woven spider webs filled with mist droplets.

This exhibition is also, in many ways, an artistic collaboration between Westcott and nature itself. There is an undeniable synchronicity between the marks she has developed through her acclaimed print practice and the intricate patterns of these new sculptural forms. These marks are not made by the artist—rather the engravings made by beetles inhabiting tree trunks are revealed through Westcott’s selective painting.

Kim Westcott is an important Australian artist with over 30 years of exhibition experience. Her work is held in many major Australian collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, as well as a number of prestigious international collections including the New York Public Library.

Having graduated in 1989 from the Victorian College of the Arts, Kim Westcott has worked with the Australian Print Workshop, and with the American Master Printmaker, Garner Tullis, in his New York workshop. A yearning to work with the Australian landscape prompted her return from New York in 1995. She travelled to Utopia in Central Australia to watch Emily Kame Kngwarreye paint, before working from a bluestone cottage in the National Park near the Mornington Peninsula and immersing herself in the beach landscape. After setting up a print studio in West Brunswick, Victoria, Westcott then relocated to the Warby Ranges where she has been inspired by the North East Victorian bush landscape for the past twenty years.