Shining: James Lieutenant and Kate Vassallo at the COX Gallery

Caption: [Left image] Kate Vassallo, drawing detail, coloured pencil on paper, [Right image] James Lieutenant, Waves (2025), painting detail, acrylic on canvas

Kate Vassallo and James Lieutenant met while studying at the ANU School of Art in 2008. Bonding over a shared love for conceptually rigorous abstraction, process driven making and contemporary art, they have shared a studio together since graduating in 2010. They find inspiration and closeness through working side by side, while each sustaining their own distinct processes and ideas.  

On occasion, they collaborate in making works, but this exhibition is intended to bring their individual art practices together. 

Caption: [Left image] James Lieutenant in the Studio, [Right image] James Lieutenant’s studio

Colour, light, time, materiality and process are central to both artists’ work. Art historical approaches to painting form the basis of James Lieutenant’s experimentation. His painting is open and honest, finding a balance between creating and breaking painterly illusion.  

Caption: [Top image] James Lieutenant, Small Red Lines (2025), [Bottom left image] James Lieutenant, Grid and Marks (2025), [Bottom right image] James Lieutenant, Shapes and Marks (2025)

In Kate Vassallo’s colour pencil drawings, composition and colour are created through a controlled build-up of material density. She designs complex sets of rules and systems that dictate her making.  

Caption: [Top image] Kate Vassallo studio portrait, [Bottom left image] Kate Vassallo in studio, [Bottom right image] Kate Vassallo’s studio

Both artists are drawn to working with repetitious and slow-moving creative processes. 

Caption: [Left image] Kate Vassallo, 567 lines with 100 coloured pencils (2023), [Right image] – Kate Vassallo, 10 Colours (2025), coloured pencil on paper

James Lieutenant is represented by Jennings Kerr in New South Wales. 

When: 14 July – 15 August, with the gallery open from 9am-5pm
Where: The COX Gallery is located at 1/19 Eastlake Parade, Kingston, ACT 

Photography credits:  

Andrew Sikorski:  

• Kate Vassallo, drawing detail, coloured pencil on paper  

• James Lieutenant, Waves (2025), painting detail, acrylic on canvas 

• James Lieutenant, Small Red Lines (2025) 

• James Lieutenant, Grid and Marks (2025) 

• James Lieutenant, Shapes and Marks (2025)

Jessica Maurer:  

• Kate Vassallo, 567 lines with 100 coloured pencils (2023), coloured pencil on paper

Pew Pew Studio:

• Kate Vassallo studio portrait