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Eye Candy
Introduction
Janne Kearney’s broad spectrum images offer a message of personal empowerment and sexual autonomy. In her current series Eye Candy the artist positions her subjects display their playful sexuality. By portraying her subjects as anything but passive, Kearney subverts the patriarchal gaze and in doing so creates a space in her art where all forms of sexual and gender orientation are not just accepted but celebrated. This is an official MIDSUMMA exhibition.
Catalogue essay by Marguerite Brown, MA ArtCur 2023 Janne Kearney’s eye-popping paintings have earnt her an enviable reputation over the past decade. A self-taught artist Kearney started painting at the age of 47 and has carved out an impressive career in a relatively short span of years. Citing diverse influences such as Norman Rockwell and Caravaggio, Kearney has developed a distinctive, finely tuned realist aesthetic that has been honed through her dedicated practice and various professional development grants and workshops, including time spent at the New York Academy of Art.
Fundamentally figurative, Kearney’s work shines a light on under-represented and marginalised communities, capturing her subjects in high fidelity with empirical attention to detail. However rather than exploring purely formal concerns, her paintings contain a social comment on autonomous sexuality and the power of hope. Kearney has long used the representation of a rainbow as a symbol of hope, which is emotively employed in her Dystopia series where disaffected youth are represented in run down urban environments. Even in these shadowy realms, Kearney introduces a rainbow within each image as a reminder that hope persists no matter how dire one’s circumstances.
In her current series Eye Candy the artist often positions her subjects against a background of shapes that densely interlock and overlap in a spectrum of bold colour. While serving as a loud and proud homage to the rainbow flag of the LGBTQI+ community, Kearney’s broad spectrum colour vibrations also reference the pop, optical and psychedelic art movements that arose in 1960s America. This period of cultural revolution was driven by a youth movement that sought to create an egalitarian society, challenging dominant conservative norms and political systems. Feminism rose to prominence and Western society changed forever.
Given the message of empowerment and female sexual autonomy that underpins Eye Candy it is fitting that the series contains aesthetic references to the art of the 1960s. This exists not only in the compositional arrangements of single (or paired) figures against vivid backgrounds that call to mind psychedelic poster art of the period, but in the style of clothing depicted as bandannas, retro love-hearts and tinted pink glasses abound.
The women in Eye Candy display an overt and playful sexuality as they suggestively lick lolly pops and return the viewers’ gaze unabashed. It’s not so common to see women depicted in fine art or in popular culture as not just owning, but openly enjoying their sexual selves. By portraying her subjects as anything but passive, Kearney subverts the patriarchal male gaze by returning it assuredly back at the viewer. In doing so she creates a space in her art where all forms of sexual and gender orientation are not just accepted but celebrated.
It is a telling reflection on society that creating space for all ways of being is an inherently political act. However, the fundamental freedom of expression that underpins Eye Candy is ultimately life affirming as Kearney pursues a female pleasure principle to be enjoyed by the viewer and the viewed.
ARTIST BIO Kearney has exhibited widely and has an impressive award history. Most recently Kearney has been announced as the winner of the inaugural National Capital Art Prize (2021), a finalist in the Portia Geach Memorial Award (2021, 2020, 2018), Kennedy Prize (2021), National Capital Art Prize (2022, 2021), thewinner of the Lethbridge 20000 Art Award (2020),and a finalist in the Lethbridge 20000 Art Award (2022), the Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award (2020), the Lester Prize (2020) and the Clayton UTZ Art Award (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016). In 2018 she was selected as a finalist in the Stanthorpe Art Prize, the Black Swan Portrait Prize and one of seven winners of the American Fashion Week San Diago Annual ARC Salon Awards. She has twice been awarded the Corangamarah Small Scale Art Prize (2017 & 2016) and in 2017 her artwork 86 (Rhyming Slang for Worth Nix) was featured on the cover of the BP Portrait Award exhibition catalogue at London's National Portrait Gallery. That work subsequently entered the collection of renowned UK art collector Mervyn Metcalf. Kearney has also been a finalist in the Doug Moran Portrait Prize (2017, 2015) and the Lethbridge Art Prize (2017, 2016, 2015, 2000). She has exhibited works in the London Portrait Gallery, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, The Sunderland Museum England, Royal Albert Museum and Art Gallery Exeter, Arte dall’ Turin Italy, Salmagundi Club New York, Lux Art Institute San Diego, Sotheby’s Los Angeles, and the Museu Europeu d'Art Modern in Barcelona.
