18 July–4 August
Featuring works from:
- Vishmi Halaratne
- Roger Mortimer
- Kate Serebrianskaia
- Gavin Chai
- Lottie Consalvo
- Vipoo Srivilasa
- Harry McAlpine
- Jamie Chapman
- Jess Swney
Catfish swims between worlds. It begins with two familiar companions of art and imagination: cats and fish, creatures that have long occupied a rich place within art history’s visual language. From the symbolic and domestic presence of cats in painting, folklore, and devotional imagery to the enduring depiction of fish in still life, allegory, and maritime traditions, both have served as potent subjects through which artists explore mystery, abundance, intuition, and the uncanny. Their longevity as motifs lends this exhibition a lineage that is at once playful and deeply referential.
Here, however, they merge, twist, and transform into the catfish: a strange hybrid that is part real, part imagined, and part mischievous metaphor. In the digital age, “catfishing” introduces yet another layer. It speaks to disguise, performance, and the slipperiness of identity online—the ways we present ourselves, mislead, and delight in illusion. Like its aquatic namesake, the catfish moves through murky waters, appearing familiar yet impossible to pin down: at once playful, cunning, and elusive.
Across painting, object and installation the works in this exhibition reflect this duality. They celebrate curiosity and whimsy while inviting reflection on the shifting boundaries between reality and fiction, nature and artifice, surface and depth. In Catfish, the hybrid, the unexpected, and the digital intertwine, reminding us that the line between truth and and performance is often as slippery as a fish in water.
Featured artwork: ‘Kate Fish’, Gavin Chai
