Brighton, England 1971

CATHY BLANCHFLOWER The dazzling opulent art that is the work of Cathy Blanchflower make her one of the most exciting painters of her generation in Australia today. Her painting is primarily about communicating and sharing feeling, rather than concepts or ideas, and the response one gets from her work is one of an adopted experience as opposed to an intellectual position. Her painting is very much about reflection.

Influences include the Op Art of Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely in the 1960s, as well as Islamic design and ceramics, and quite naturally the work of her father Brian Blanchflower, and his close friend Bob Brighton.

The overall sensation of her painting is one of depth, although her surfaces are flat and appear to shimmer and float. Despite the complex layering of her work, the paintings are deceptively simple. We are reminded of the act of seeing, as one cannot look continuously without the picture mutating, thus repeated looks, and memory, are required to complete the whole.

Cathy Blanchflower was born in 1971 in Brighton, England and migrated to Australia in 1972. She has had nearly a dozen solo exhibitions since 1995 and has participated in numerous group shows. Her work hangs in major national and international collections, including the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the National Gallery of Australia.


SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2007 Annandale Galleries, Sydney
2006 Astral Austral Avenue, Melbourne
2005 Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
2004 Annandale Galleries, Sydney
2003 Goddard de Fiddes Contemporary Art, Perth
2000 Goddard de Fiddes Contemporary Art, Perth
1999 Annandale Galleries, Sydney
1998 Atlas Goddard de Fiddes Contemporary Art, Perth
1997 Annandale Galleries, Sydney
Rainroom Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
1996 Goddard de Fiddes Contemporary Art, Perth
1995 Frequencies Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

2007 Tobey Fine Arts, New York, NY, USA
Annandale Galleries, Sydney
2006 The Colour of Music, Adelaide Central Gallery, Adelaide
2005 The Sound of Painting, George Adams Gallery, VAC, Melbourne
2004 Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
Mine Own Executioner, Mundaring Art Centre, Mundaring
2003 ARCO Madrid, Spain
Pink Slips and Golden Parachutes The Project, New York , NY.
Indecorous Abstraction 2 , NewContemporaries, Sydney
2002 In Abstract Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, UWA, Perth
Indecorous Abstraction, Light Square Gallery, Adelaide
Good Vibrations, Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Victoria
ARCO Madrid, Spain
2001 Phenomena Art Gallery of New South Wales
Neo Geo John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University, Perth
Goddard de Fiddes Contemporary Art, Perth
2000 John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University, Perth
GdeF Goddard de Fiddes Contemporary Art, Perth
1999 Beyond the Grid Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Distant Horizons John Curtin Gallery, Perth
West Coast Geometric Abstraction Goddard de Fiddes
Contemporary Art, Perth
Bunbury Biennale Bunbury Regional Art Gallery
A View from the Sea, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth
1998 A View From the Sea, Santo Tomas University, Manilla , Philippines
Gotham Times Ten, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
Optics, The Sir Herman Black Gallery, The University of Sydney
Artists Against Racism (installation with Michelle Theuinessen)
Perth Institute of Contemporary Art
1997 A Further Possibility Goddard de Fiddes Contemporary Art, Perth
Gotham on the Verge, Verge Gallery, Perth
Young Art Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
1996 West of West(WA Seascapes) Goddard de Fiddes, Perth
Abstraction Now Geelong City Art Gallery (Touring Vic. and NSW)
Out of Australia Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
1995 In The Company of Women (100 years of women's art from the
Cruther's collection), Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
Tea and Sex Moore's Building, Fremantle
...a Rose is a Rose is a Rose...' Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth
1994 A New Possibilty Goddard de Fiddes, Perth.
Small Spaces Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth
1993 115~581 East 31~561 South Roslyn Oxley Gallery9, Sydney.
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Invitation Exhibition, Perth (Westpac Award)


GRANTS, AWARDS & COMMISSIONS:

1999 Artflight, ArtsWA
1997 Youth Creative Development Fellowship, ArtsWA
1997 John Curtin Gallery Print Commission
1995 Emerging Visual Artist's Fund, Department for the Arts WA
1993 Westpac Award


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

The Age "By Name and Nature" Penny Webb, Friday January 9th 2007
Australian Art Review "Moving Meditations", August- September 2005
The Sound Of Painting, Lesley Harding, Exhibition Catalogue,The Arts Centre of Victoria, 2005
The Sydney Morning Herald, Visual Arts, Peter Hill. Weekend Edition p. 8-9, April 3-4 2004
Del Kathryn Barton, Cathy Blanchflower, Derek OConnor, Monica Tichacek Chris McAuliffe, Exhibition Catalogue, Karen Woodbury Gallery. Melbourne 2004
Cathy Blanchflower: Artistic Vitality and the Spatial-temporal World
Phillip McNamara. Goddard de Fiddes Contemporary Art, Perth. Exhibition Catalogue, 2003
The West Australian "An Optical Illusion" Nyanda Smith, Saturday December 13th 2003
Shout Magazine "Opulent Art" Andrew Nicholls, December - January Issue 2003/04
Indecorous Abstraction 2 : Contemporary Women Painters
Margot Osborne, New Contemporaries, Sydney. Exhibition catalogue. 2003
In Abstract Janice Baker and John Barrett-Lennard, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, The University of Western Australia. Exhibition catalogue. 2002
Indecorous Abstraction : Contemporary Women Painters Margot Osborne, Light Square Gallery, AIT ARTS Adelaide.Exhibition catalogue. 2002
Good Vibrations: the Legacy of Op Art in Australia Zara Stanhope, Heide Museum of Modern Art. Exhibition Catalogue. 2002
Visual Art, "Good Vibrations: the legacy of OP art in Australia"
Exhibition review, Robert Nelson. The Age, November 16th, 2002.
Phenomena. New Painting in Australia:1 Michael Wardell, Art of New South Wales, Sydney. Exhibition Catalogue. 2001
Australian Art Collector " Fractal Fitting" Bruce James, Australian Art Collector Issue 18. Oct - Dec. 2001
Visual Art, "Good Vibrations: the legacy of OP art in Australia"
Exhibition review, Robert Nelson. The Age, November 16th, 2002.
Art and Australia ARCO issue, Vol 38 #4, Oct - Dec. 2001
Arconoticias #21 "Gallery Profiles" p 38-40. ARCO, Madrid, July. 2001
Visual Art, "Good Vibrations: the legacy of OP art in Australia"
Exhibition review, Robert Nelson. The Age, November 16th.
The West Australian "Clearly Abstract" Robert Cook, October 19th 2000
Art and Australia illus. P. 544 Vol 36 #4, Oct - Dec 1999
Bunbury Biennale Exhibition Catalogue, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery. 1999
Eyeline Contemporary Visual Arts Reviews "West Coast Geometric Abstraction", Marco Marcon. Number 40. Spring 1999
Gotham Times Ten Nikki Miller. Exhibition catalogue. Perth institute of Contemporary Arts, 1998
A View from the Sea . Exhibition catalogue. David Bromfield, Helen Carroll. University of Western Australia. 1998
Westerly "The City of Dreams: New Art in Perth" Helen Carroll. University of Western Australia. Summer Issue 1998
Artlink "Sustained Contemplative Images" Exhibition Review by Mary A Livesey, #18, Vol 3. 1998
Optics . Exhibition catalogue. Sir Hermann Black Gallery, University of Sydney. 1998
The West Australian "On Show" David Bromfield, The West Australian, Saturday May 9th 1998
The West Australian "On Show" David Bromfield, The West Australian, Saturday January 18th 1997
Australian Art Collector illus. P.25 Issue 2. Oct - Dec 1997
The West Australian "On Show" David Bromfield, The West Australian, August 23rd.1997
Abstraction Now Simeon Kronenberg, Geelong City Gallery, Exhibition catalogue. 1996
Herald Sun Melbourne Arts, Peter Timms, July 24th 1996
Western Australian Artists in Residence John Stringer & Richard Woldendorp Sandpiper Press, Perth. 1995
In The Company of Women: 100 Years of Art from the Cruther's Collection Belinda Carrigan. Exhibition Catalogue. 1995
A New Possibility Julian Goddard, Goddard de Fiddes Contemporary Art, Perth Exhibition Catalogue. 1994
Sydney Morning Herald Galleries, Elwyn Lynn, July 17th 1993


REPRESENTED:

Curtin University of Technology
Artbank
Royal Perth Hospital
Western Mining
Wesfarmers
Bankwest
Cruther?s Collection
University of Western Australia
Edith Cowan University
Art Gallery of Western Australia
University of Sydney
Water Corporation, WA
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Private Collections in Australia, UK, Europe and USA