Kirstie Rea, Tending Light Fields – A 20 Year Survey is a curated selection of works from Canberra based artist, Kirstie Rea, an exciting exhibition showcasing the works from one of Australia’s most celebrated artists working in glass. The works included in the show provide a condensed snapshot of how Rea’s visual language has developed and strengthened over time to an eloquent mastery of capturing the intangible aspects of human connection and experience of place to the natural world.

The Northern Rivers region is a nature’s wonderland, Bundjalung country of the local Nyangbul people, abundant with beautiful rainforest, rich agricultural lands and a world renowned turquoise coastline. Not surprisingly, there is an intrinsic relationship and fascination with local audiences and the land. In acknowledgement and celebration of this fascination, the Northern Rivers Community Gallery (NRCG) is thrilled to present this special exhibition as a unique perspective to the landscape genre for local audiences to experience.

Using light as a highly articulated language and glass as a medium to capture and translate her experience of being in, and sense of belonging to the land, Rea creates breathtaking sculptural works that reference complex layers of personal, colonial and social histories in relation to place and the landscape.

For Rea, a country girl at heart, who grew up in Canberra, spending time in the landscape… time for stillness, listening, observing and exploring are central aspects within her arts practice. Rea, in explaining this aspect of her creative process refers to John Muir, an early advocate for the preservation of wilderness, known as the “grandfather of national parks”, when he explains the experience of being in the landscape, “going out was really going in”. This notion of being with the land and allowing immersion of place, where time ceases to be linear and senses are triggered, a place not merely of an observer but being intimately connected to place reverberate throughout the highly evocative works of Rea.

We are so excited and humbled to present, Kirstie Rea, Tending Light Fields – A Twenty Year Survey exhibition at NRCG, the first contemporary glass exhibition of its kind to be showcased in the Northern Rivers region and look forward to introducing local audiences to the stunning works of Kirstie Rea.