Night road searching for the red light to lead us home, 2024

Gemma Rose Brook is an emerging South Australian artist currently based on Peramangk land. In the act of painting she aims to capture a certain psychological mood or an emotional narrative within experiencing an environment or place, while also connecting to female modernist painting. Her story-like titles add depth to the emotionally charged paintings. They consist of quirky personal narratives, odes to painters before her or descriptions that narrate the subject. Technically, her painting has shifted from capturing likeness of a subject to more visceral and expressive bold marks that speak of modernist and expressionistic influences. She often paints on-location and this plein air nocturne, ’Night road searching for the red light to lead us home’, was made on a residency at the Coorong in South Australia. The overall intent of this work is to speak to universal psychological themes of looking for the light or path forward when we are emotionally uncertain or in ‘darkness,’ while the narrative of the work refers to driving in remote parts of Australia.

Gemma graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Adelaide Central School of Art in 2019 with a sell out graduate body of work and since then has established a strong emerging painting practice.
In Gemma’s first year of professional practice she was awarded a year long artist residency at the government youth arts organisation Carclew as well as the Carclew Fellowship. This fellowship included mentoring by Sydney based painter Tom Carment, exhibiting at Carclew house and travelling to Sydney for professional development opportunities, including a Masterclass at the National Art School.
In 2020, Gemma was a finalist in the Heysen Prize for Landscape and in the same year won first place in the Royal Society of the Arts Youthscape Prize. Her successful solo exhibition at Floating Goose Studios was based on her time living in Pukatja (Ernabella) in the APY Lands over 2020 and 2021 as an Indigenous arts centre studio manager.
In 2022 Gemma was a finalist in the Gallery M Art Prize and began working towards interstate exhibitions in NSW. In 2023 Gemma was selected as a finalist in the Paddington Art Prize. The work selected in the prize was made on the prestigious Kangaroo Island Residency that Gemma was selected for by Country Arts South Australia. She was also a 2023 finalist in the Elaine Birmingham National Watercolour prize QAGOMA Queensland. Her work during this time was included in notable group exhibitions at Project Gallery 90, Art2Muse, The Royal Adelaide Hospital, Central Gallery, Murdoch Hill Winery, The State Library of South Australia and Side Gallery.
In 2024 Gemma was a finalist in the Fleurieu Biennale, chosen to exhibit in the Loretto art fair and then also selected for a residency at Scuola Internazionale di Grafica di Venezia Italy, during the Venice Biennale.
Her work is collected nationally and internationally.