Based in Melbourne, Australia, I am an artist working in both oil painting and installation.
I am strongly influenced by both having grown up in South Africa during Apartheid, and my undergraduate studies in Psychology and Sociology. I draw on autobiographical content, memories and the subconscious, and am also influenced by reading, whether in Psychology, Sociology, Spirituality or Philosophy. As a child I had two beloved pets who were my caretakers, a fluffy white cat and a very ugly black dog, both loved and missed greatly.
My work is coded with characters, symbols and colours that carry meaning for me, the viewer can take away their own stories and find meaning for themselves in the work. Painting for me is a way of making sense of my interior thoughts and feelings, by painting, I can make sense of the world. On the installation side of my practice, I work with fur, creating large rooms, furniture and items to wear.
My work has explored themes such as broken relationships, sexual politics, toxic masculinity, peace and healing.
About the Artist
Janice Gobey
Janice Gobey graduated from the University of Melbourne’s, Victorian College of the Arts with a Masters in Visual Art obtaining a 1st class honours.
She was selected as one of the artists for the Linden New Art Innovators program as well as curated exhibitions such as The f Word at Ararat Rural Gallery, Fixation at the Town Hall Gallery and the f Generation at George Paton Gallery.
Gobey was shortlisted for the Kennedy Art Prize, the Wyndham Art Prize, the Sunshine Coast Art Prize as well as the Toyota Community Spirit Sculpture Prize and has participated in numerous international residencies such as the NG Creative Art Residency in Provence, the Leipzig International Artist Programme in Germany, the London Summer Intensive, a joint residency between The Slade and Camden Arts Centre, ; Summer Painting Intensive at the School of Visual Arts, New York; Point B, New York and Takt, Berlin.
“The fox is a recurrent theme in Gobey’s work. Often maligned and misunderstood the fox has come to signify cunning and brutality but in fact it is a small creature that gets by on its wits, furtive, living on the edge of, and the crumbs of, society, much like the plight of many people seeking refuge in a country not their own, the plight of most refugees world-wide.”
-Nichola Garvey 2018
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