Damien Minton Gallery

THE STRUTTS ARE BACK

Folk musicians, Cape Breton step dancers, synaesthetes: The Strutts are as eclectic as their art. The Strutt Sisters are identical twins Catherine and Jennifer, who are artists based in Newcastle. They are well-known for their mixed media assemblages. Their works consist of bricolage – tiny stages made of wood and tin, on which a cavalcade of characters snipped from old magazines, medical textbooks and postcards frolic. These works at times resemble nothing so much as the bric-a-brac shelf in a country town op-shop. The Strutts revel in the discarded and surreal, the whimsical and the absurd. Their works have been described as Joseph Cornell’s boxes turned inside out.

The collaborative nature of their work allows for cross-pollination of ideas, each twin bringing her own inspiration and making her own mark.

“All their busy references are beautifully contained within formal constructions of real assurance and a careful interweaving of pattern and colour”, wrote art critic Sebastian Smee.

For the past two years, the twins have concentrated on a unique line of jewellery which lends its look from their art practice.

The exhibition ‘Still Life’ sees The Strutts push into new formats away from their traditional stages.

Solo Exhibitions (Collaborative)

2007Kostüüme, Damien Minton Gallery, Redfern 2006Festlig, Damien Minton Gallery, Redfern 2005Greener Pastures, Damien Minton Gallery, Redfern 2004Many Strutts Make Art Work, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery 2004Many Strutts Make Art Work, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre 2003The Cicada Series, ‘New Contemporaries’, QVB, Sydney 2002Bird Songs, Damien Minton Gallery, Newcastle 2001‘The Gig’, Damien Minton Gallery, Newcastle 2001Vessel Studio Project – a collaborative project with artist Peter Hardy, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery 1996Lake Macquarie Council Chambers, foyer 1995‘Keynote to Popularity’, Watt Space Gallery, Newcastle

Group Exhibitions (Collaborative)

2007Muswellbrook Open Art Prize, Muswellbrook Regional Art Centre 2005Art on Paper Prize, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery 200312 Artists from Newcastle in Sydney, Danks Street, Waterloo, Sydney, Sulman Prize, AGNSW 2002Ten Artists from Newcastle in Sydney, Danks Street, Waterloo, Sydney 2001Art on paper Prize, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery 1999-2001Toys by Artist, New England Regional Art Museum Touring Exhibition 1998PCL Exhibitionist Gallery, Sydney 1998‘It’s a Guitar Shaped World 3’, Tamworth Regional Gallery 1996‘Watt’s Next’, Watt Space Gallery, Newcastle 1995Graduate Diploma Exhibition, University of Newcastle 1994Exchange Exhibition with the University of Northumbria, Newcastle Upon Tyne, England 1994Maitland Art Prize 1994National Tertiary Art Prize, Wollongong 1994A Pony for Tony, Watt Space Gallery, Newcastle

Awards

2007prize winner Muswellbrook Open Art Prize, Muswellbrook Regional Art Centre 2005finalists in Hazelhurst Art Award: Art on Paper 2003finalists, Sulman Prize, AG NSW 2001finalists in Hazelhurst Art Award: Art on Paper

Collections

Artbank