Cash Brown
Cash Brown
Cash Brown Welcome (after Judith Leyster and Rachel Ruysch) 107×97cm oil on linen
Artist statement 2019
My practice is rooted in appropriation. I enjoy borrowing images, re-engineering them into critical yet playful comments on contemporary first world life and swinging between being reverent and irreverent.
Eight years ago I was at a friendly dinner with a gentleman some two decades my senior. During the meal he gently proposed that I become his companion. When I questioned him about the age difference, he explained ‘I love women in their late 40’s, they are like roses in full bloom just before the petals drop off.’
I was mortified. I did not take him up on his kind offer. But the shock of his revelation really got me thinking… were my petals really falling off? I was 45.
Soon after I found myself in Europe taking in Old Master portraits, genre paintings and indulging in a new-found fascination with Dutch still life. I was taken aback by stunning botanical arrangements, with their impossible seasonal super impositions, out of scale relationships, crazy angles, stages of growth, insects and imperfections presenting powerful metaphors for transience and ageing. Although I had seen many before, they took on a different kind of power, and held my interest longer than usual. (There are so few examples of these in Australia, especially those by women.)
These paintings can also provide critical observations of contemporary European society, which is fascinating during the late Renaissance and the Dutch Golden Age, when capitalism took off spectacularly in the Netherlands and small portable paintings were traded like tulip bulbs and spices. Women were permitted to paint for the new private market made buoyant by a demand for exotic still life as a display of wealth, or portraits for posterity.
In Italy, during the same period, a few women got into genre painting and expressed themselves with some very interesting allegorical selfies in addition to earnest self-portraits. Many had spectacular careers, which history appears to have neglected. The disquieting revelations of underrated women artists from the past combined with the topics they chose resonated deeply.
These paintings are memento mori, metaphors for ageing and the transience of memory. They pay homage to remarkable women, worthy of transcribing into the twenty first century to illuminate and honour their contributions to Western Art.
Cash Brown
2019
Solo Exhibitions
2018 Golden Years, Biennale of Australian Art, Ballarat
2011 Child’s Play “ Head on Photo Festival, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
2010 Size Matters, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
2008 Priceless, GRANTPIRRIE (Project Window), Redfern
2008 Appropriate, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
2006 Product of Environment, Big Star Gallery, Norwood, South Australia.
2003 Wetland, Hill on Hargrave Gallery, Paddington.
1999 Across the Bridge, Gallery 245, Surry Hills.
1999 Heterogeneous, Zanzibar, Drummoyne.
1998 Untitled, Open House Gallery, Rozelle.
1998 Pachyderm, L’Otel Darlinghurst.
Selected group exhibitions and collaborative projects
2017
Biennale of Australian Art, Whats in the Box?, Ballarat, Melbourne, Daylesford
Floris et Fructis, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
2016
Small Gems, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
2015
Small Gems, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
2014
Small Gems, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
2013
Clipboard, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
2012
Clipboard, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
Sculpture 12, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
WAYS auction, Bondi Pavilion
NAS plate auction, National art School, Darlinghurst
2011
Paper Trail, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
Erotica, James Makin Gallery, Collingwood
2010
Untitled, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
The Ikea Home Project, Carriageworks, Redfern
2009
Small is the New Big, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
Showing Off, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Bathurst
Tickled Pink, Artereal Gallery, Rozelle
Hybrid, Artereal Gallery, Rozelle
Art For Sharks, AMCS, Brisbane
Extinction Denied, Arthouse Hotel, Sydney
Artists at the Armory, SOPA, Newington
2008
Smash Hits, Paramatta Artist studios, Parramatta
Sublime Equine, Rushcutters Bay Gallery, Sydney
Becos I’m Worf It, MOP, Chippendale
Tech in Niche, ATVP, Newtown
Heroin[E], East Sydney Doctors, Darlinghurst.
Works from the collection of Alex Mackay, Brisbane
2007
Year of the Pig, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
Great Western, Suitcase Gallery, Newington Armory, Newington
Art Melbourne 07, Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton
Back a Bushie, Crookwell Town Hall, Crookwell
Artists at the Armory, Newington (SOPA)
Extinction Denied, Arthouse Hotel, Sydney
Seven Plus Three, Seven, Wentworth Falls
Maxine’s Art Show, Danks St Depot, Waterloo
Artist at my Table, NAS, Darlinghurst
9×5 Walker St Gallery, Dandenong
2006
Shelf Life, MOP Projects, Redfern.
Not The Big Picture, Greenhill Galleries, Adelaide.
Group Show, TAP Gallery, Darlinghurst
Global Warming, SODA Gallery, Avalon
Snowdropping, Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Camperdown
Year of the Dog, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
WHOLESALE THERAPY, (with Adam Cullen) MOP Projects, Redfern
Art of Eucalyptus, University of Melbourne Botany Foundation
Post It, Peloton, Chippendale
Linden Postcard Show, Melbourne
Abbatoirs and Brickworks, an industrial history, Newington
Foundation for Australia’s Most Endangered Species, Leconfield Winery
Art With A Heart, King on Burton Gallery, Darlinghurst
An Artist at My Table, Cellblock, N.A.S. Darlinghurst
2005
Special Affects, (with Adam Cullen) MOP Projects, Redfern
Home Economics, (performance piece with Adam Cullen) M.C.A. Sydney
Extinction Denied, Arthouse Hotel, Sydney
Icons Framed, Christie’s Paddington and Sofitel Wentworth Sydney
Wayside Chapel Auction, King on Burton Gallery, Darlinghurst
Not the Big Picture, Greenhill Galleries, Adelaide
“HOTSPOTS”, 77 Williams St, East Sydney,
Soda Gallery Christmas Exhibition, Avalon
Punch, MOP Projects, Redfern
Group Show, TAP Gallery, Darlinghurst
Christmas Show, Gallery Philip Neville, Darwin
Artists Against Sedition, Casula Powerhouse, Casula
Ink, Lighthouse Foundation, Melbourne
FONAS Drawcard exhibition, Cellblock, NAS, Darlinghurst
2004
New Talent 3, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
Extinction Denied, Arthouse Hotel, Sydney
Drawcard, Cell Block, National Art School, Darlinghurst
FONAS Infusion, Cell Block, National Art School, Darlinghurst
2003
The Degree Show, Cell Block, National Art School, Darlinghurst
The Bondi Art Fair, Bondi
Dabs and Slabs, Cell Block, National Art, School, Darlinghurst
Drawing Week Exhibition, Cell Block, National Art School, Darlinghurst
Primaries, (curator) Stairwell Gallery, Darlinghurst
2002
First Wave, Fifth Floor Gallery, Ultimo.
Christmas Show, Hill on Hargrave Gallery, Paddington
2001
Drawing Week Exhibition, Cell Block, National Art School, Darlinghurst.
S.I.S.A. Exhibition and Competition, National Art School, Darlinghurst
Prizes and residencies awarded
2006 S.O.P.A. residency, Newington Armory, Homebush
2004 Real Refuses portraiture prize, TAP Gallery, Darlinghurst.
2003 Murray Sime prize for excellence in painting at the National Art School.
2003 Robin Gibson Gallery prize.
2001 S.I.S.A. award, National Art School, Darlinghurst.
Prize Finalist
2019
Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize, Sydney
2007
Doug Moran Portraiture Prize (highly commended) Sydney.
Archibald Prize Salon De Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Observatory Hill, Sydney
2006
Sir John Sulman Prize, A.G.N.S.W. Sydney
Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Woollahra, Sydney
Redland Art Award, Queensland
Mission to Seafarers Award, Victoria
Lexus Mortimore Memorial Prize, Dubbo
Comalco Martin prize, Gladstone, Qld
2005
C.C.A.S. Contemporary Art Prize, Gorman House, Canberra
Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
Soda Gallery Small Painting prize, Soda Gallery, Avalon
The Waterhouse Prize, South Australian Museum, Adelaide
Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Gallery, Mosman
Art on The Rocks, The Rocks, Sydney Visitor’s Centre, Sydney
Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Woollahra, Sydney
She, Walker St Gallery, Dandenong, Vic
Amnesty International Art Prize, Darlinghurst
2004
Art on the Rocks, SRC Gallery, the Rocks, Sydney
Tyree Tycan Works on Paper, Bowral, NSW
John Leslie Art Prize, Gippsland Regional Gallery, Sale, Vic
Waverley Woollhara Art Prize, Bondi
