As part of our major exhibition, Jacqueline Fahey’s Suburbanites, Wallace Arts Trust is pleased to host a Floor Talk on Wednesday 20 November, 11am – 12pm.

Jacqueline Fahey, now in her 90th year and as vibrant as ever, will talk about the works in the show, bringing to life the riotous celebration of her love of people and paint.

Her focus for over seven decades has been to represent the people in her life and the network of relationships that define us. Moving from the domestic vantage point of a young mother, out into the streets and skateparks of Aotearoa New Zealand, she offers a portrait of suburbia and its inhabitants that is at once oppressive and joyous, brimming with both conflict and love.

Fahey’s paintings allow us to look back with nostalgia at familiar scenes: birthday parties, dinner parties and preparations for school balls. They also look outwards, posing more difficult questions. As our suburbs rapidly change, becoming more diverse and more gentrified her emotionally complex depictions of the people of suburbia continue to strike a contemporary chord. 

Image: Jacqueline Fahey, Luncheon on the Grass, 1981-82, Collection William Dart, Auckland.