Feeling feline at Backspace Gallery
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Cats were the first domesticated animal to be worshipped as the earthly representative of a higher consciousness.
Cats, in all their physical grace and mysterious ways, have been the centrepiece of artworks for millennia.
As a companion piece to 2017’s wildly popular Dogs In Art, Backspace Gallery opens its winter season with Cats In Art - an exhibition that invites local and regional artists to move beyond the ‘cute kitten video’ and to delve into our relationship with the companion that chooses us, rather than the other way around.
Over 40 artists heeded that call, resulting in a body of work in all media that celebrates the many ways that cats are depicted in contemporary art – realistic, abstracted, serious and playful.
Complementing Cats In Art, the Exquisite Project Space (in the Backspace Gallery foyer) has issued its own invitation to the general community to contribute more feline-aphilia to the display Kitty Kitty Kitsch.
From Little Cat’s Feet Bedroom Slippers to Hello Kitty! Coin Purses to Little Kitty Onesies, this adjunct to Cats In Art is a humorous signal that cats will always be with us.
Backspace Gallery is an initiative of the City of Ballarat, designed to support local and regional artists by exhibition quality contemporary visual art, design and craft. It is free to the public and open Thursday – Sunday, 12–4pm.