Born and raised in Sydney, Regi Cherini has chosen to spend most of her adult life living in regional and remote northern Australia, including the Northern Territory, the Kimberley region of Western Australia and most recently Far North Queensland. Remote living comes with many challenges and blessings and has afforded her perspectives and insights into various unconventional characters and lifestyles.
Now in her early forties, Cherini’s current series of works explores the shared experiences of women within the frame of societal pressure, expectation and gender inequality. Inspired by the contemporary needlecraft movement, Cherini utilises the medium of embroidery to depict still life compositions. She revels in subverting the traditional domestic medium of embroidery to express seemingly incompatible subject matter.
In recent history needlework has been a marker of femininity in its various iterations, a domestic ‘craft ‘constrained by utilitarian or decorative intent. Cherini is interested in challenging and undermining notions of imposed boundaries and hierarchies of creativity, raising embroidery out of the realm of craft and into that of fine art. Approached with a post-modern sensibility, referencing and yet rejecting a traditional context, Cherini demonstrates that embroidery can be an unconventional and subversive medium for examining and challenging issues of gender, equality, class and culture.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2023 ‘Sweet Nostalgia’ NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns QLD
2020 ‘All The Single Ladies’ Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville QLD
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2023 ‘Wish You Were Here’ Crate59, Cairns QLD
2022 ‘Risographomania’ Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville QLD
2021 ‘Fresh Material: New Australian Textile Art’ Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville QLD
2021 ‘Still: National Still Life Award 2021’ Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, Coffs Harbour NSW
2018 ‘Seed Stitch Collective Contemporary Textile Awards’ Australian Design Centre, Sydney NSW
2018 ‘Deadly Threadly’, Chinatown HQ, Broome WA
2018 ‘Threads’ Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne VIC
2017 ‘Shinju Matsuri Art Award’, Broome WA
AWARDS:
2017 Shinju Matsuri Highly Commended Award
COLLECTIONS:
City of Townsville Art Collection
PUBLICATIONS:
2022 TxP (Textiel Plus) {online}
2021 Textile Fibre Forum Magazine
2021 Fresh Material: New Australian Textile Art
2021 Still: National Still Life Award
2020 All The Single Ladies
2019 Mr X Stitch {online}