Exhibition Curator Talk: Chat with Cat for Luff

Chat with Cat: Curator Talk
Wednesday 6 December, 11am
Free event

Join Cat Fooks, the curator of our current major exhibition lʌf as she talks about the process of selecting the works on display, guided by the idea of the four seasons.

About the curator
Cat Fooks was born in Hamilton in 1976 and completed a Bachelor of Visual Communications, majoring in Painting, at Unitec, in 1999. Her first solo exhibition, Pleasant St, opened at Anna Miles Gallery, Auckland in 2016. 

Fooks, says, “It’s probably fair to say I am an entrenched studio-based painter.” The generous basement of the Onehunga building she has occupied since 2011 is a temple to painterly ‘enlightenment’, a place she has specifically congested to trip up her own agency. Her efforts to unleash instinct rely on twin mechanisms; a mixed-up selection of rejected domestic paraphernalia, and a copious supply of paint of every hue and quality, from artist-grade oil paints to miss-tints from the local hardware store. 

A turning point in Fooks’ practice came when she spent two years living and working in Guatemala (2006-2008). For the first time in her life, she was free to paint full time, yet within an environment devoid of professional art supplies and conversations. Forced to seek out materials, she turned to the ubiquitous shiny enamel house paint used to repeatedly repaint, refresh and recycle facades and interiors. This cheapest, most expedient means of domestic ‘makeover’ became a conduit to the painterly fearlessness and unpredictability she has pursued ever since. 

Fooks maintains an active exhibition schedule in Tāmaki Makaurau and also shows regularly in Australia. In 2020 she was one of three artists selected for the Objectspace exhibition, Deadweight  Loss: The Value of Making. In 2022 she was invited to make an exhibition for Ramp Gallery, Wintec  Te Pukenga, Kirikiriroa, Hamilton. Fooks lives and works in Onehunga.

lʌf is Cat Fooks first solo curation of an exhibition.