An exhibition featuring Hepburn artist, Lisa Gervasoni, has opened at the Backspace Gallery at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.
Lisa has combined her passion for heritage, planning and the environment with her family heritage in the region and her love of Eugene von Geurard’s iconic depictions of the western districts.
Lisa Gervasoni with Kooroocheang.
Lisa took advantage of Covid lockdowns to develop a series of paintings and embroidery depicting Western Districts landscapes a portion of which are included in the exhibition.
She uses a warm and vibrant palette and semi-abstract style to reimagine von Guerard’s landscapes through the lens of her knowledge of planning and history and perspectives from satellite imagery. Her paintings show the changes in the landscape as it has been transformed following European settlement.
Close friend, Mandy Jean, who has worked with Lisa on strategic and heritage and planning projects, spoke at the opening: “Lisa work is intricate, joyous and so clever. I recognise these landscapes that actually depict a story of the last two hundred years – where mining occurred, where the mullock heaps are… the 1860 Land Act… the curve where the railway was put through the Smeaton landscape.”
Lisa has exhibited in the Swiss-Italian Festa and the Daylesford Small Art Prize among many other exhibits. She was a finalist in the Harden Landscape Art Prize in 2021. She was inducted into the Hepburn Shire Council’s Women’s Honour Roll in 2009.
The exhibition is open during Gallery hours until June 25th. Entry is free.
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