Artereal Gallery is excited to present Summoning Circle
a solo exhibition by Owen Leong.

Exhibition Opening Event:
Saturday 6 April from 2 – 5pm

Summoning Circle marks a pivotal turning point in my artistic practice. For my fifth solo exhibition with Artereal, I have developed a sophisticated conceptual and material vocabulary drawing from kink aesthetics in a playful celebration of queer joy. Inspired by adrienne maree brown’s concept of “pleasure activism” – which centres pleasure as a political act – my sculptures and paintings serve as conduits of pleasure for social change, grounded in a queer politics of healing.

For years, I have used my body in photographic self portraiture. In this exhibition of sculptures and paintings, I have slowly vanished the body from my work, yet it is still clearly present in the evocative materials and forms of these new pieces. While turning towards new disciplines, I reimagine sculpture as self portraiture with residues of the body appearing in cast bronze fingers, leather cuffs and cut denim jeans.

At the heart of this collection lies the circle, a symbol of awakening and altered states of being. Each artwork is a portal inviting the viewer to step into the universe contained within. Delicate porcelain rings are pierced by bronze fingers and mushrooms. Soft sculpture silk drops, in golden yellows and opalescent whites, appear alongside harder industrial materials like stainless steel spreader bars and golden chains.

In my bleach paintings on deconstructed bedsheets, incandescent marks bloom like psychological Rorschach tests or brain scans. Circles of burning light appear like rings of interstellar fire in the night sky, framing provocative text commands that invite the viewer to surrender to pleasure. These artworks construct a narrative embodying a conversation between queer pleasure and politics.

Complementing the visual narrative is a commissioned work of fiction by Beau Lai, enriching the exhibition with poetic resonance. In Summoning Circle, I use personal mythologies and queer aesthetics to explore power and control, and to reframe and reimagine masculinities and intimacies. At the heart of my practice is a belief in the power of art to transform the way we see ourselves and others.

Artist Statement – Owen Leong,  2024

Owen Leong – Artist Biography

Born in Sydney, Australia.
Lives and works in Sydney, Australia.

Leong’s work has been exhibited widely in Australia and internationally including the Art Gallery of New South Wales; Art Gallery of South Australia; Queensland Art Gallery; Newcastle Art Gallery; Monash Gallery of Art; 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art; Singapore Art Museum; Today Art Museum, Beijing; Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai; OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shenzhen; and the National Museum of Poznan, Poland.

Leong has been awarded a two-year studio residency at the 2023-25 PAS Rydalmere Studios. In 2017, Leong was a finalist in the Ramsay Art Prize, Australia’s premiere prize for young contemporary artists. In 2016, Leong received the MAMA National Photography Prize and in 2015, he won the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award. Leong has been awarded numerous grants from Creative Australia, Create NSW, Ian Potter Cultural Trust, and Asialink. He has held artist residencies at Artspace, Sydney; Centre for Contemporary Chinese Art, Manchester; Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan; Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai; and Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong.

His work is held in the public collections of Creative Australia, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Bendigo Art Gallery, Detached Cultural Organisation, Gold Coast City Gallery, Murray Art Museum Albury, Newcastle Art Gallery, University of Salford Art Collection UK, and private collections in Australia and internationally.

Owen Leong was recently awarded a Create NSW Grant, a Parramatta Artists’ Studios Skills and Development Grant, and The Chey Fellowship, which will contribute to the development of a major solo exhibition at The Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC), Western Sydney University, in late 2024.

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