Award-winners team up with artists with disabilities for exhibition

A Northcote gallery has launched a program highlighting the power of women in art and pairs award-winning female artists with locals at their new exhibition.

Artist Cathy Staughton celebrates her work with curator Catherine Bell.

The latest Northcote exhibition to showcase artists with disabilities has more than a feminine touch.

Female artists spanning disciplines of painting, photography, printing and performance collaborated on works to show the diversity of art being made by women today.

Arts Project Australia curator Catherine Bell said the exhibition, titled FEM-aFFINITY, showed the importance of diverse voices and perspectives.

Artists on show include Archibald Prize winner Yvette Coppersmith.

“What makes FEM-aFFINITY distinctive is that the other artists have collaborated together to produce new works, while also showing past work that illustrates the connections between the artists’ practices,” she said.

“The affinity between the artists is revealed in the subject matter, and you can see this in the collaboration between Cathy Staughton and Prudence Flint, who both paint women in interior settings. But while Prudence paints herself as others, Cathy instead paints others as herself.”

Fourteen artists worked on the exhibition, including recent Archibald Prize winner Yvette Coppersmith and finalist Prudence Flint.

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Arts Project Australia supports artists with intellectual disabilities, promotes their work and advocates for their inclusion in contemporary art.

The exhibition is on display at its High St, Northcote gallery until July 20.

For details visit the Arts Project Australia website.

@richardapearce