SOLO EXHIBITIONS / modern art

1998 Run After Your Food: A Selection of Works exploring Papua New Guinea’s Subsistence Culture: Whistler’s Cottage Gallery, Geelong. Australia.
1999 Coming Out. The Loft, Ballarat. Australia.
2001 Scratching the Surface. Australian High Commission. London.
2002 Place Belong Me; Place Belong You. Jersey Galleries, Ealing.
2005 The Book Gallery. St. Ives.
2006 Vitreous Gallery, Truro.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

AUSTRALIA / modern art

1995 Geelong Art Show.
1997 Ballarat Society of Artists.
1998 York Street Community Centre, Ballarat.
1998 Webster Group. Ballarat.
1998 Graduate Exhibition. University of Ballarat.
1998 Regular Artists’ Group. Whistler’s Cottage Gallery.

U.K. / modern art

2000 A & I Exhibition, Kensington. London.
2001 Plumbline Gallery. St. Ives.
2001 Open Exhibition: Orleans House Gallery. Twickenham.
2001 Pitshanger Manor Gallery. Ealing.
2002 Plumbline Gallery, St. Ives.
2002 Hays Gallery. London.
2002 The Lyn Strover Gallery. Cambridge.
2002 Battersea Art Fair London.
2002 Three Women Artists: Alethea Garstin / Dora Holzhandler / Cheryl Harrison.
2004 St.Ives September Fringe Festival, Open Studio.
2005 Battersea Art Fair London.
2005 Book Gallery, St.Ives.
2005 St.Ives September Fringe Festival, Open Studio.
2006 Vitreous Gallery, Truro.

SOLO EXHIBITION REVIEW: 'WEATHERED LANGUAGE', Cornwall U. K. 2006

Shortly after moving to her adopted home in New Mexico Agnes Martin spoke of how “it is more important to figure out where you want to be than what it is you want to do. First you need to find out where you need to be and then you can do what you need to do.”
Australian-born artist Cheryl Harrison would concur with this sentiment. She speaks of being almost physically seized by St Ives on her first visit. “I’ve travelled all over the world and never found anywhere where I felt so immediately at home.”
“Weathered Language” at The Book Gallery on Chapel Street is Harrison’s first solo exhibition in the town and surely marks one of the most impressive and powerful debuts for many a year.
Harrison rejects a didactic approach to her work, preferring to leave viewers free to formulate their own responses, to decode a language which retains an intriguing coherence through everyday encounters (as in the moving “Street Talk”) to immense, brooding themes, perhaps hinting at some ancient menace not yet subdued (the hugely impressive “Blatant”).
Images of ladders and windows hint at an inner journey, a descent into the human psyche which is often far from comfortable (“Dark Series”, “The Math”) yet the ordeal is exhilarating for being shared.
The thunderous disquiet provoked by “Blatant” is balanced by the quiet radiance of “Things To Come” and the restful “Shine”.
Paintings from the Dark Series intermingle with the quirky “Beautiful Crazy” and the buoyant “Perpetual”.
Those who enjoy being challenged by works of art, who are prepared to run the risk of feeling far less sure of themselves than when first walking through an exhibition door, will find much to engage with here.
The paintings blend exceptionally well with the impressive interior of The Book Gallery and can be viewed from 2.00pm to 5.00pm Monday to Saturday until 23 July, or by appointment.

Review by Mark Coton, Journalist & Writer.