New-York based painter Renée Estée has been included in Vogue Vanguard's January 2025 publication.
Hannha-Rose Yee writes - The Melbourne family home of artist Renée Estée was, she remembers, “very small but creatively alive. I grew up drawing everything around me, everything on the walls and all of the objects adorning the surfaces. It’s funny because this has crept into my practice so much – creating artworks that feel adorned or shrine-like.”
Estée relocated to New York to complete her MFA at Hunter College, where she is now based, and the tension between her adopted home and Australia feeds into her large, abstract paintings. “When I first landed in New York, I was so struck by how the landscape was essentially vertical. I was always looking at giant skyscrapers,” she says. “My paintings were already large-scale but became larger … I wanted to keep looking up.” If the scale screams America, Estée’s palette recalls our sunburnt country: ochre, sand and blush pink. Her canvases are often embellished with childhood mementos rescued from a box she carried with her to New York. “The works started becoming archival, as well as acting as a doorway back to Australia.”
In 2024, Estée completed a residency in Cornwall, where the rhythm of the sea guided her brushstrokes. She returned recently, painting at night under a silvery sky, and these new works will be exhibited at her gallery COMA later this year. One hope for 2025 is a return to Australia. “Now that I’ve been away for five years, I’m feeling in need of spending some time painting back home.”
View Artists profile here.
