TURN YOU INSIDE – OUT: an intriguing exhibition in a hidden gallery

Posted on 8 April, 2022

Jesse Symon is a non-binary multidisciplinary visual artist who spent their teenage years growing up in Canberra before attending the Canberra School of Art.

I’m proud to say that Jesse Symon is my nibling (a gender-neutral term for the child of a sibling) and has always had amazing talent. From the time they were a child, they could paint and sculpt in a way that left the family amazed. Jesse would imagine and dream in form and colour and with great inquisitiveness—often searching for something better.

Jesse’s art practice is focused on the performative body, psychological states and gender identity and they will be showing their work at an exhibition TURN YOU INSIDE – OUT on 15 –17 April from 11am til  5pm at The Barton Art Box.

Jesse Symon is an artist examining the queerness of the world. Photo by Vicky Waters.

The Barton Art Box is a private, bespoke and unique exhibition space, behind the heritage façade of  7 Young Street in Barton. The gallery is situated in the glorious garden of Diana McPhetres who hangs selected works by emerging and interesting artists. The atmosphere at the Art Box is peaceful and graceful.

Jesse’s work is visibly influenced by their own personal story, with titles like “the future is uncertain”, and reaches deeply into the study of the human condition in mediums of watercolour and charcoal on fabriano paper.

The paintings reflect on the queerness of the world and they embrace the uncertainty of the future. Will there be a future and what will it look like? How will we look? Jesse’s work makes it clear that if you feel “different”, you are no different to anyone else and we all share humanity. There is a revisionary practice in the work, the kind of revisionist practice that is often called “queering”, a reposition of traditional practice and aesthetic that has been dominated by the straight white male bloc. There is a spirit of curiosity and intrigue that Jesse brings to the work that really turns the political correctness down and the intensity up.

The Barton Art Box is a private gallery owned by Diana McPhetres. Photo by Ben Wrigley.

Following their study at the Canberra School of Art, Jesse secured a place in 1998 at the Victorian College of Art, Melbourne University, and completed a Bachelor of Fine Art. A National Gallery of Victoria Women’s Association Award recipient, they continued to make Art, work and study, obtaining a Masters in Fine Art at RMIT in 2007.