Clare Jaque Vasquez, Feet on the ground, eyes on the sky, 2025, acrylic and impasto on stretched canvas, 200 x 200 cm.

In Skyland, Gomeroi/Kamilaroi artist Clare Jaque Vasquez invites viewers into a layered exploration of Sky Country as both archive and witness. Drawing on her upbringing between Western Sydney and on Country, and informed by her matriarchal lineage, Vasquez presents skyscapes as acts of cultural remembering — gestures of resilience, beauty, and ancestral continuity.

The exhibition is anchored in the belief that the sky is more than atmosphere; it is a sacred expanse carrying memory, seasonal knowledge, and generational dialogue. Vasquez’s deep personal connection to her grandmother, who taught her to read the sky’s colour and movement, shapes her approach to painting as a slow, tactile process rooted in care, observation, and reverence.

Incorporating experiences from her time in the aviation sector, Vasquez creates visual dialogues between natural and mechanical flight — juxtaposing native birdlife with Chinooks, C-17s, and drones. These “mighty mechanical birds” become contemporary mythologies that speak to disruption, awe, and the shifting dynamics of Sky Country.

Textural layers, inspired by woven bags and domestic materials, are wrapped over the works to create protective surfaces that reflect both the fragility of memory and the enduring strength of matriarchal lines. Skyland offers a poetic intersection of past and future, nature and technology, sovereignty and transformation. Amidst the hum of modernity, Vasquez’s work asserts that Sky Country still listens, teaches, and holds its truth.

Opening event: Wednesday 18 June, 6 – 8pm

Featured image: Clare Jaque Vasquez, We all breathe under the same sky, 2025, acrylic and impasto on stretched canvas, 200 x 200 cm.