The Australian artist Annette Bezor addresses female sexuality, gender issues and the symbolic power of images in her large scale vibrant canvases. Bezor’s paintings have taken a number of directions throughout her respected career but the quest to explore and challenge the realm of the female figure in art has remained a constant. Through her manipulation of iconic images of painted women in art history, Bezor allows us to see both the represented woman and real woman afresh. Bezor’s paintings therefore remind the viewer not only of how various cultures represent women, but of the practice of judging real women by their appearance. Naturally Bezor is regarded as an artist working within the feminist domain, but she is by no means limited by such a title. The notion of how humans represent themselves, others and literally understand each other in a lived sense transcend gender and racial boundaries.

Repetition is a characteristic of the artist, painting two, or sometimes more, versions of an image. Subsequent renditions of an image are often copied not from the source but from the first rendering. This process leads to an almost perfect copy, but there are subtle changes. Repetition raises issues of authenticity and of commodification in the modern digital age.

Silent Violent takes as it subject two female Asian faces set against a backdrop of traditional Asian flora, contextualizing her interest in a specific culture. The painting feels at once contemporary and classical, belonging to a distant world of image making. Key to Bezor’s work is her ability to create work of great technical skill that speaks of her own interests and attitude, but also connects to the audience more widely.Bezor has had numerous solo shows throughout Australia since the early 1980s to great critical applause and has shown internationally in New York and Hong Kong. She is the recipient of many awards and grants including the Australian Council Fellowship. Her work is in several high profile public and corporate collections including the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Artbank, Sydney, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Wollongong Art Gallery, New South Wales, Auckland City Gallery, New Zealand, John Sands Collection and Tasmanian University Gallery.