Glennys Briggs and Kate Just join Finkelstein Gallery

Finkelstein announces its representation of artists Glennys Briggs and Kate Just.

Glennys Briggs is a Taungwurrung – Yorta Yorta artist from North Central Victoria, whose practice is based on her deep connection to the land and the traditional stories passed down to her by her ancestors. Now based on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Briggs works primarily in printmaking, though she regularly experiments with other mediums including painting, sculpture, installation and sound, wearable art, and possum skin cloak making. The many layers in her works create connections between past and present, and she seeks to use her art to educate her audience about the history of her community and the current issues they face.

Briggs graduated from the Queensland College of Art in 2013, majoring in Print Media. She came to art later in life, which was a product of her desire to pass the stories and cultural information she was given on to the next generation. Briggs received a Victorian Indigenous Art Award in 2014, and has exhibited around Australia as well as in Hong Kong.

Kate Just is an American-born Australian artist who is well known for her political use of knitting. Her practice is based around social commentary and feminist themes, and she uses a range of mediums to address current events and explore personal issues. Alongside her solo works, she often takes part in large scale public art projects that address topics such as sexual harassment and violence against women, working to create community awareness. Her current works are particularly engaged in the erasure of women within the conventional art canon, with her current project, Anonymous Was a Woman, commemorating the women whose contributions have been expunged from the historical record.

Just has achieved a PhD in Sculpture from Monash University, after completing her Master of Arts at RMIT University and her Bachelors at the Victorian College of the Arts. She is now head of the Master of Contemporary Art Program at Victorian College of the Arts, and has received over forty grants, prizes, fellowships and residencies.

Image: Kate Just, How I Will Change, 2018. Neon, 20 x 135cm. Courtesy: the artist and Finkelstein Gallery, Melbourne.