NATURAL SELECTION

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Natural Selection is a series of animal portraits by Ann Cape inspired by her invitation into the 2011 Artists in Residence Program at Taronga Zoo. She has created a menagerie on canvas – documenting fauna from the close confines of Sydney’s most renowned zoological park.

Her animal subjects, are either immersed in landscapes - where they seemingly belong, or floating, suspended in space, trapped in the confines of the canvas.

‘In all of Ann Cape’s work there is a genuine investment of energy, a skill of showing those marks that build a final transformative image,’ wrote Steve Lopes. When it comes to animals, Ann’s significant skill is in portraying creatures poised mid flight. Her raw, energetic and immediate mark making, worked atop painterly layers, drips, and exaggerations and elongations of form, suggest the most voracious to the most delicate and subtle of motions. It is the culmination of many years studying and refining the art of drawing and painting, Ann Cape style. Her natural affinity with her chosen subjects is at play in the exhibition title - Natural Selection. Ann chooses the species she wishes to survive on her canvas. Fittingly the title also references the role of the Zoo in the continued population of endangered species.

The Taronga Zoo artist residency gives selected artists the rare opportunity to observe and paint the animals at the zoo. In turn the artists involved donate pieces that are auctioned, raising money ($300 000 to date) for conservation.

Linda Newton, the Major Gifts Manager and convenor of the artists’ residency program at the Zoo is delighted with the success of the residency over the last 3 years and enthuses, “As well as raising funds for Taronga’s conservation programs, it gives our leading artists a rare insight into the work of the Zoo as well as the chance to work en plein air with other artists in a unique setting. The works produced during the residency allow us to see the animal kingdom and Taronga Zoo in new ways”

Other artists involved in the 2011 Artist Residency program at Taronga Zoo include John Olsen, Wendy Sharpe, Michael Kempson, Steve Lopes, Jenny Sages and The Strutt Sisters.

Ann Cape has been a finalist in multiple art prizes including the Archibald Prize, the Portia Geach Portrait Award, Blake Prize, Jacaranda Drawing Prize, Kedumba Drawing Prize and the Redlands Art Prize exhibition, among others. She has won over fifty prizes for drawing and painting, and in 2011 won the Costel Vasilescu People’s Choice Award in the Xtrata Percival Portrait Award. She has also completed many portrait and commercial commissions and is represented in private and corporate collections in Australia and overseas.