Diane Farris Gallery is pleased to welcome Australian artist Cherry Hood to her first solo exhibition in Vancouver.

Hood's large scale watercolour portraits examine the gaze and sensual implications of the adolescent, pre-pubescent, male youth. In this series BrŸder, or brother, Hood portrays an uncanny vision of the beauty and vulnerability of the male adolescent that is typically used to portray young girls and women in traditional western art. Hood, who studied gender politics in art and culture and the taboos that surround the representation of the male body, commenced this study for it's political reaction and continued it for her obsession with the subject at hand. BrŸder questions the double standard in the way cultures regard and exploit the female body in art and pop culture while painting the young boys in a format that is reminiscent of large scale media advertising encountered everyday that commonly depict images of sexualized young women.

While objectifying their postures of seduction and sensuality, Hood further invites an inter-relationship. Rather than being an imposition on the viewer, which is often the case with large scale advertising, Hood invites the viewer into a gentle softness expressed through her fluid washes of ochre and crimson. Hood states "Their powerful and constant gaze forces an inter relationship or inter action with the viewer. This compelling stare deflects and reflects the viewers voyeristic gaze."

An accomplished portraitist, Cherry Hood attained a Master of Visual Art from Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney in 2000 and in 2002 won the 80th Archibald Prize for Portraiture for her portrait of pianist Simon Tedeschi, Simon Tedeschi Unplugged. To date her work is collected on the international plain with collections in England, France, Australia, the United States and Canada.

Based in Sydney, Australia Cherry Hood will be present for her opening in Vancouver.

The Contemporary Art Society of Vancouver will celebrate their 25th anniversary with an Artist talk by Cherry Hood on Tuesday, October 14th at 7:30pm, at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, room 328, in the south building.