Brenda Runnegar

Marine Series

Twelve fish
(2009)
oil on plywood panels
81 x 81cm

Picture selected for inclusion in the Stan and Maureen Duke Gold Coast Art Prize 2009 exhibition, Surfers Paradise from 12 December to 14 February 2010

Exhibition Displacement

ANCA Gallery 22 October – 2 November 2008:

Displacement was an exhibition which highlighted the bizarre, the beautiful and the fragile aspects of the oceans. It operated as a vast Wunderkammer or curiosity cabinet and emphasised the importance of the oceans both in an aesthetic and intellectual sense, and to remind us that we belong to a vast, living planet that is incredibly beautiful, terribly fragile, and at times quite bizarre.

Through paintings of still life, fish portraits and sponge, I used my status as artist to act not only as a privileged interpreter of nature but as an inventor. To achieve this many of the works were distorted and exaggerated to emphasize the sometimes quirky nature of the world beneath the sea. The works aimed to excite curiosity to the diversity of our oceans and the life therein and to enlist help in their protection.

Fish portraits

Spotted Fish selected for inclusion in the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize exhibition, 2008.
Highly Commended.
South Australian Museum, September 2008.
National Archives of Australia, November 2008.