‘SCRUB’, looks at the original scrub on the Sydney coast, only 1% of which is left (Eastern suburbs banksia scrub).
Through still life paintings of Indigenous flowers, birds, and insects, Guthleben uses the traditions of vanitas and its messages of the transience of life to present a painted vernacular that spans humour, kitsch, historical and environmental themes.
She reinterprets the delicate floral masterpieces of Dutch Golden Age painting by amping up the colour and light in response to the Australian environment and emphasising the texture and diversity of Indigenous flora in brushy impasto.
Jane Guthleben studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honours at the University of New South Wales in 2015. Guthleben has been a finalist in the Archibald Prize (2020), Archibald Prize Salon des Refuses (2021, 2019), Mosman Art Prize (2019,2012), the Portia Geach Memorial Portrait Prize (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018), Eutick Memorial Still Life Award (2018), Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize (2017) and the Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize (2015) among others.
