Playing with perspective and a loose-handed approach to realism, Kiata Mason’s work is filled with visual references from her life and family. Her paintings portray nostalgic vignettes, and collections of objects that evoke memories of small yet important moments in her life.
Kiata’s upcoming exhibition at Arthouse Gallery, The Artist’s Table, is heavy with personal meaning. Several years ago Kiata returned to her family home to care for her Grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Surrounded by familial objects and the memories embedded within them, the artist began creating paintings to document and celebrate her family history. While these objects might not seem noteworthy at first – a deck of cards, a loose fig, or a collection of silverware, for Kiata there was great importance in ‘rejoicing in the history shared, and learning from that history.’
Works in The Artist’s Table mine Kiata’s family history and personal memories for visual and symbolic references. The green and red plaid tablecloth in a painting title Vogue Nectarines is not just a tablecloth, but an offcut found in her family’s sewing drawer, from a dress Kiata’s mother made her for a wedding when the artist was a small child. It’s a similar reference in Soup and Stories, where the tablecloth pattern is inspired by a dress her mother wore to Kiata’s fourth or fifth birthday party.
‘The work is about bringing together different personalities and ways of thinking, and having an acceptance of all – a feeling of inclusion, and of respecting the different ages’, Kiata reflects.
The Artist’s Table by Kiata Mason
Arthouse Gallery
February 13th – 29th
66 McLachlan Avenue
Rushcutters Bay
New South Wales
