Kim Leutwyler creates paintings of LGBTQ+ identified and allied people. Her work explores the concepts of glorification, objectification and modification. Throughout the work she pushes and pulls the boundary between realism and abstraction, highlighting the layers and complexity of identity, gender and beauty.
Figuring Ground exhibition starts from the premise of where and how we stand, as queer, constituted beings on vibrant and unstable ground. Through queer framings of the classical western convention of the figure/ground relationship, it seeks to draw out intimate contact zones for queer worldmaking, as a means to collapse and expand traditional self/world binaries. In addition to this central exhibition, Kim is developing a body of work called Re-figuring Ground involving artists engaging with the Grafton Regional Gallery collection to develop queer retellings. Re-figuring Ground will be an opportunity to be critically reflective of the museum and gallery practices that have shaped Grafton Regional Gallery as an institution, and is partially funded by this small grant.
