JENNY WATSON

(AU)

Jenny Watson is a prominent figure in contemporary Australian art. Her work explores themes of identity, self-narrative, and memory through a deeply personal and often autobiographical lens. Working across painting, text, and collage, Watson’s distinctive style combines spontaneous, deliberately naïve imagery with materials such as velvet, hessian, and taffeta. Her paintings incorporate fragments of text and recurring childhood motifs—horses, bedrooms, dreamlike figures—that together form a poetic reflection on femininity, self-image, and the landscapes of memory.

Watson began her career in the 1970s with photorealist paintings of her childhood homes but soon developed a more introspective and dream-oriented language. Influenced by punk aesthetics, she embraced an unpolished, emotionally raw approach that prioritized authenticity and immediacy over technical refinement. She was part of a Melbourne-based movement that rejected traditional art forms in favor of a more direct and honest visual language.

Over the past 25 years, Jenny Watson has developed a meaningful relationship with Stalke Galleri, where she has participated exclusively in group exhibitions. Her first appearance was in 2000 in a group show with William Anthony and Dirk Larsen. Since then, her work has been featured in several curated exhibitions at the gallery. These contributions have introduced her distinctive and poetic visual language to Danish and European audiences.

Watson’s works are held in major international collections, and her continued presence in both the Australian and international art scenes reflects a lifelong artistic practice that weaves together the personal, the political, and the aesthetic.