Courtesy: the artist and Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, Sydney.

Morticia: Think of Romeo and Juliet.
Gomez: They died.
Morticia: Oh, but what fun they had those last three days…

“The mid-1960s television series The Addams Family serves as the unlikely starting point for South Australian artist Angela Valamanesh’s new body of work ‘The Mortician’s Garden’. The exhibition’s title references the series’ matriarchal lead, the sophisticated, urbane and ghoulish Morticia Addams. The series operated on many levels of meaning but at its heart was an acceptance of difference. For Valamanesh, Morticia Addams’ winter garden, filled with carnivorous plant hybrids and roses that have their blooms routinely cut off to leave jagged stems, was a surprising visual memory from her adolescence. The exhibition features ceramic works complimented by paintings that play off these amalgamated monstrous forms. The exhibition is a call to slow down, consider things from a different viewpoint and understand the potential of a brighter future.”

Sebastian Goldspink
Curator, 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art
Art Gallery of South Australia.

Please note: the gallery is currently closed due to Covid-19 restrictions, click here to view the exhibition online.

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