Annette Bezor

People are products of both socio-cultural and biological processes. These processes conflict with each other and create a degree of tension within individuals that depends on their circumstances. In various societies, at various times in history, these competing pressures produce quite different kinds of social constructs. These social constructs are reflected in the art of those societies, and Bezor re-employs that art as an analytical tool to reconsider contemporary mores and values.

Bezor uses a range of painting techniques to support her analysis. Her Entanglement series of paintings (c1989-2011) are typically composites of several original and appropriated images located in a contrasting, expressionistic ground. The resulting visual construct becomes a metaphor for the construction of identity. Entanglement-Complicity (2010) clashes images of a Madonna and Child with Japanese Geisha and the classical art nude — three archetypal roles traditionally assigned to women in male-dominated societies — and the figures look as if they are emerging from a maelstrom.
   
Bezor's appropriation of imagery and reconsideration of past art are strategies intended to address the representation of women and women’s sexuality as much as the nature or history of art itself. And while the painting techniques she uses question the nature of painting as an art form, they are primarily used to create powerful metaphors.

In Lookers (2011) and For all the tea in China (2013), for example, the underpainting shows through the surface and appears physically ravaged, so that the pretty faces painted over the top appear damaged. The resulting imagery alludes to the superficial nature of beauty and suggests the inevitability and actuality of aging and deterioration.

Excerpt from "The Art of Annette Bezor" by Chris Reid.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2016
Precious Luck, Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide

2015     
Face Value, Hill Smith Gallery
Silent Violent Lifetimes in disguise, Australian Galleries. Melbourne

2014        
Inscrutable, Australian Galleries, Sydney

2013      
Survey show 1997 - 2013, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW

2012      
Beautiful Ugly, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
At first sight, Greenhill Galleries, Perth

2011       
Lookers, Harrison Galleries, Sydney

2010     
It’s complicated….  Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide

2009    
Speaking silences, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
Silent Violent, Harrison Galleries, Sydney

2008    
Annette Bezor, Harrison Galleries, Sydney

2007     
Annette Bezor, Turner Galleries, Perth
Urban Turbans, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide
Annette Bezor, Florence Lynch Gallery, New York

2006    
Mirror Face, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne

2005     
Flogging the rocking horse, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide

2004    
Witness, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
If Looks could Kill, Brian Moore Gallery, Sydney

2003     
Annette Bezor, Florence Lynch Gallery, New York

2002     
Cloning as ultimate appropriation, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide
Blush, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane

2001     
Robert Lindsay Gallery, Melbourne  

1999      
SurFace Tension, Robert Lindsay Gallery, Melbourne  

Selected Group Exhibitions

2015
CACSA Contemporary, SALA Festival, Adelaide

2014      
Sugar Coat, Level One Gallery, Hilton Hotel, Adelaide.

2011       
Wattle, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong

2010     
Signal 8, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong
Doug Moran Portrait Prize, NSW and travelling

2009    
Sulman Prize Exhibition, Art gallery of NSW, Sydney

2008    
Sulman Prize Exhibition, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney

2006    
Uneasy, Samstag Gallery, Adelaide

2005     
Snapshot, Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide
Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
True portraits, Adelaide Central Gallery

2004    
ARCO 2004 (International Art Fair), Greenaway Art Gallery, Madrid, Spain
Annette Bezor, Carolina Antich. Florence Lynch Gallery, New York
Taipei Art Fair, Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide

2002     
Sulman Prize Exhibition, Art Gallery NSW, Sydney
Erotica, Metro 5 Gallery, Melbourne

2001     
Orbit, SA Museum Gallery, Adelaide

Awards and Grants

2010     
ArtsSA Fellowship

2006    
New Work/International Presentation Grant. Arts SA

2003     
International Assistance Grant, Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council

2002     
New Work Grant. Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council

Collections

Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Michell Endowment, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Artbank, Sydney
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Broken Hill Regional Gallery, New South Wales
I.C.I. Collection
Wollongong Art Gallery, New South Wales
Auckland City Gallery, New Zealand
John Sands Collection
Sam & Minnie Smorgon Collection
Victor & Lottie Smorgan Collection
Tasmanian University Gallery
Rockhampton City Gallery
Yarra Collection, Victoria
BHP Billiton