Nat Penney

‘the dull ache of needing to remain acceptable’ 2025 Huon pine, stainless steel, tile from my childhood bathroom Available in the @seventhgallery auction: 20 Jun-28 Jun 2025 Photos by the ever helpful @dave.court

I’m not a fitter and turner but being able to make my own funny little fancy flange set dreams come true is the fun fun fun in the sun 🤸 ‘tell me they’ll tell you she’s a man of steel’ (detail) 2024 Photography @samrophoto

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙾𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚘𝚘𝚖, continuing at the gallery until 14 June. Pictured (L–R): the option, 2024, textile, foam, snap fastener halves, blackened mild steel, 1770 × 480mm; the option is there, 2024, mild steel, buttweld dome caps, snap fastener halves, 1770 × 480 × 660mm; Clare Rae, Untitled (Actions), archival inkjet prints, 100 × 125cm (x2); I like to take care of Myself, Fergus Berney-Gibson & Zoë Prineas MacPhail, 2024, dumbbells, steel, velvet. 𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚜𝚞𝚋𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚒𝚜 𝚌𝚘-𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚝𝚞𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚠𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚏𝚞𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚘𝚛 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚕? Clare Rae’s Untitled (Actions) is a long-form series staging her body in conceptual and spatial dialogue with institutional architecture. In this latest iteration - captured at the University of Melbourne’s offsite art storage - she draws on feminist legacies that reclaim the body as a site of knowledge, resistance, and ‘misbehaviour’. Through physical play and gestural subversion, Clare unsettles the supposed neutrality of bureaucratic and archival space: a scissor lift becomes a post-partum hospital bed; a truck blanket, a swaddled infant. These actions are quiet, absurd, and charged - inflected by the entangled labours of artist, mother, and researcher.  Where Clare’s gestures map the body in space, Nat Penney’s sculpture renders that entanglement as object: a large rocking chair whose bed-like surface is embedded with metal domes. Drawing on her background in furniture-making, Nat creates forms that mimic therapeutic design but disturb its promise. The domes, suggestive of massage mechanisms, also recall hostile architecture - inviting contact while denying comfort. The rocking conjures nervous repetition, a coping mechanism made material. With work by Fergus Berney-Gibson & Zoë Prineas, Linda Judge, Emma Pinsent, Nat Penney, Emma Winkler, Lauren Cameron, Emmica Lore, Clare Rae & Lily Holmes. @yarracityarts @ferguskbg @courtjester_studio @lindathejudge @emmapinsent @natpenney @emmalynwinkler @porcelain.babee @emmica.lore.art @clarerae @lily__holmes 📸 @meg_de_young

‘the option’ and ‘the option is there’ will be showing @seventhgallery in group exhibition ‘The Other Room’ Opening tonight! Wednesday 14th May, 6-8pm 215 Church Street, Richmond, VIC Exhibition Dates: 14 May - 14 June (Wed-Sat)

tell me they’ll tell you she’s a man of steel, 2024 stainless steel, gripwell cambuckle tie downs, treadmill, castor wheels ‘stop trying to prove yourself, we’ll never believe that you can pretty pathetic but all equal here but there are just some things you can’t do but you should die to do it all (endurance, endurance, endurance) you can move your body however you feel but the pressure to pound the pavement; incessant sweat drop down my and the body takes it’s own weight over and over carving it’s way into itself (sweat now, shine later)’ All documentation @samrophoto

special sculpted scrolls for @jingwei_bu to compliment and support one of her incredible works in the future 🖤 European beech

‘tell me they’ll tell you she’s a man of steel’ (detail) 2024 stainless steel, gripwell cambuckle tie downs, treadmill, castor wheels There’s a futility or sadness in being so desperate to prove yourself or optimise yourself to fit in systems that don’t serve you. I cut Chris’ dance up in uniform sized pieces and restructured and repeated sections, manipulating it into regimentation. Using a range of metal fabricating machines and processes that have systems, requiring precision and structure, for optimised results (lathing, drilling and tapping, stainless finishing etc) I made an elaborately crafted device, that is performing something so absolutely and completely useless. Photography @samrophoto (the good ones)

‘tell me they’ll tell you she’s a man of steel’, 2024 stainless steel, gripwell cambuckle tie downs, treadmill, castor wheels For group exhibition ‘Dance Machine’ curated by @tom.golin with @chrisdyke.007 and @capitalwastepictures and @henryjock Presented by @householdpresents “A system was created that converted 15 moments of Chris’ one minute dance performance into technical drawings through motion capture. 15 artists were then invited to respond to these drawings.” I compared my daily movements to those of Chris. His map is unrestrained and unpredictable, where I run- a robotic motion, with straight lines and pace checking. I’m a little useless object repeating the same movement over and over, hoping for different perspectives or change. Thanks to @samrophoto for the schmick documentation and for the endless patience with my indecision beside him. Documentation supported by Arts SA

part 1 and 2 (we’re separate), 2024, European beech timber, 130 x 155 x 528 and 130 x 160 x 564 Part of ‘nearly an exhibition’ curated by Asha Southcombe ‘I’d made some jokes about dolphins to try and beat people to the punch, because maybe it’s fine to frivolously throw words about sometimes like lovingly shitting on yourself. I accidentally mentioned the term “dolphin-like” to someone writing an article, the published piece was riddled with dolphin references in art guide. They were never meant to be dolphins but also, perhaps it doesn’t matter if you think they are.’ Photography @samrophoto Documentation supported by Arts South Australia

part 1 and 2 (we’re separate), 2024, European beech timber, 130 x 155 x 528 and 130 x 160 x 564 Part of ‘nearly an exhibition’ curated by @ashasouthcombe ‘Process studies referencing childhood totems, to navigate through confused(ing) spaces.‘ Photography @samrophoto Documentation supported by Arts South Australia

‘for a source of feeling whole (3/4)’ 2024 pastel, graphite pencil on drafting film, 915x1200mm ‘A winter beach is a good place for seeing clearly’ at Newmarch Gallery. “It’s the edge you’re about to fall off but it’s the seam that seals everything in, this immaculate meeting A strong, sudden feeling of nostalgia about every moment that doesn’t exist but also a great potential. Everything feels more possible; there’s the brief window where the answer to it all seems so obvious, but you can’t quite grab it before it runs away, like the dream that is with you when you wake up and then it tucks back under again and the day goes on The winter beach is a good place for seeing clearly” excerpt from catalogue text by me. good pics by @samrophoto

‘for a source of feeling whole (2/4)’ 2024 pastel, graphite pencil on drafting film, 915x1200mm ‘A winter beach is a good place for seeing clearly’ @newmarchgallery “Like holding your hat on or getting your towel to sit flat in the wind It’s so intense and feels ready to suddenly just release at any moment Anxious and playful The calm before the storm is exemplified at the winter beach” excerpt from catalogue text by me. good pics by @samrophoto