About the Artist and Exhibition:

Artist Statement: Wingspan is a selection of works exploring native birdlife spanning many coastlines. Some acrylic sketches painted on watercolour pad on a trip to Broome became the starting point of this exhibition. It continually expanded with further sketches, along with a series of base relief combined collage and acrylic works on canvas and some sculptural works in bronze clay exploring a diversity of birdlife and my arts practice. Spanning the coastlines from Cable Beach to the Great Ocean Road and Port Phillip Bay. Particular emphasis is given to the many and varied species of brightly coloured and characterful birdlife in Lorne, the Otway’s and along the Great Ocean Road - capturing the unique and distinctive quirks and kinesics of local birdlife through various mediums and a richly coloured and textural style developed over the years. The image or thought of a bird spreading its wings as taking flight has always been a symbol of freedom and non-confinement. As planes were grounded during lockdowns over the past two years, birds are an apt symbol of our confinement and slow re-emergence. A regular daily walk or movement, limited by time and distance to local creeks and beaches, saw much exploration and study of local birds as they nested, fossicked and flourished through our absence. All these sentiments, sightings and observations are encapsulated in this exhibition: Wingspan.

Frances Loriente was born in 1971 in Williamstown, Melbourne to migrant European parents. She began her artistic career as a printmaker and sculptor graduating in 1992 from Monash University with a Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts, majoring in Printmaking. She took to painting after spending a year in Europe in the late 90s. A combination of the linear technique in prints, the fragmentation of colour adopted in the sculptural mosaics she worked on early in her practice and the texture and volume of her sculptures informed the painting style that developed. In later years Frances took workshops in stop motion animation, which allowed her to use modelling skills to create and animate characters developing video clips for Indigenous musician Bart Willoughby and some animated shorts. Lately Frances has been developing work that takes the style and technique of her paintings and sculptures to a more environmentally friendly practice, developing collages from everyday household packages exploring elements of migration, multiculturalism and global transience, with a ready made colour pallet, and how this has all been affected by the recent global pandemic. She lives and works in the Western suburbs of Melbourne where she exhibits regularly and is involved in various Community Arts projects, including most recently a solo exhibitions at the Louis Joel Art & Community Centre, Altona, the Bluestone Church Art Space in Footscray and collaborative workshops for the City of Melbourne ArtPlay at Federation Square and the Wood Street Art Space in Laverton with Wiradjuri Soprano Shauntai Batzke, Kokatha/Mirning musician Bart Willoughby, Yvonne Rigney Ngarrindjeri/Kokatha dancer and Taungwurrung/Yorta Yorta elder Maxine Briggs. Frances Loriente has exhibited regularly in group, solo and competition shows for the past 30 years.

View Wingspan Catalogue here (please note, sales from this catalogue have now closed)

For available works by Frances Loriente, please contact the artist directly