The 2024 Incognito Art Show

The Incognito Art Show is an Australian based exhibition that incorporates art from all over the world, from artists of every skill level.

The core concept of this exhibition, is that all artwork submitted is presented “incognito” with all artists details hidden until purchased.

Each artist who applies submits 3 piece, which are uploaded to Incognito Art’s website and then sold at their in person exhibition, or their online sale.

There is no theme or concept to guide you if you apply to this exhibition, you are free to create what you want.

Due to the relentless violence against women Australians have observed this year, and the animosity towards women globally, especially in light of a post Roe America, I felt compelled to create three pieces that went somewhere towards representing my feelings towards my biological gender and the experiences of my fellow women, all inclusive.

The above pieces in order are titled; Love, Body, Rage.

Love

A watercolour and gouache painting depicting a black woman holding a gigantic bleeding heart high above her head.

This piece is about the weight of love, the strength women show when they carry it, and the historical nature of women’s love persevering through time.

Women become vulnerable when they love, opening your heart to a man in particular is enough to get you killed.

I rarely see any woman as dedicated as those who love their families, their children, their spouses. Love can also make us strong. Love can lead us to survival.

It is a humans ability to show love that advanced our society, treating a wound is one of the first pinnacle steps we took as a species towards ensuring our survival.

Love is the connection between mother and child, that same connection that keeps her young protected.

And love is also what can trap us.

It is a blessing and a curse to bare a woman’s heart.

Body

A watercolour and gouache painting of a pregnant woman laying between two women while a child observes. One woman is casting a quilt over the pregnant woman.

Without women, we would have no life.

Despite our early human history being analyzed through the lens of a male gaze, “the history of man”, women are the beginning, and the life line, of all human civilization.

It is through our bodies that the population grows, and through the companionship and support of other women that it thrives.

Our entire system was built for this purpose, and now we are at a stage where we can choose to embody it, or peacefully acknowledge it and move forward in a different way.

The nature of western politics is threatening this sacred choice, threatening women and their health care.

Birth and pregnancy is a blessing, but only if it is a chosen, consensual blessing.

This piece is about women, their bodies, and the sacredness of fertility.

Rage

A watercolour and gouache painting divided into multiple sections. Three women in the foreground, Medusa becoming engulfed in grabbing hands, a dark skinned woman crying above a scene in the background of women burning at the stake. A chopped pomegranate in the top left corner, an abstract scene of Emily Davison stepping in front of racing horses sits in the top right corner, with blood dripping to form a scene of bombs dropping on a city perched on top of an apple. Text to the right reads “I have. She has. All women have. Its not all men, but its all women.”

Rage is a complex emotion, its not just anger.

Its helplessness, its grief, its furious anger in the face of such bold injustice that others perpetuate.

Women are the mistreated gender, the gender that has been wronged.

We are demonized for wanting to live.

Religion paints us as weak, selfish, disrespectful.

It teaches that woman was made to serve man, that we are just a mere fragment of the first man born.

But we are the life that fuels our species, we are the life givers.

No matter what historical event you observe, the chances are women are the most negatively impacted. Regardless of colour or faith, women are the first to be attacked, judged, neglected, destroyed.

From the mythic stories of gods among men, telling of a woman who transformed to protect herself so that she may never feel a man’s violence again. Taught mostly as a fable of a monster who should be slayed, without acknowledging the real monster of the story.

The burning of witches, something that is still done in some places today.

And finally, war.

A game played by men, men who care not for the careless loss of life, life birthed by the women who are now being murdered alongside their children.

Meanwhile men continue to argue on the subject of women’s rights. Whether we deserve them. Whether we have too many. Whether we have any right to complain.

Rage is about the absurdity of crime against women.

Rage is about the despicable carelessness towards human life.