Bess Xueyang Hu was born in Hunan Province, China in 1998. She studied politics at Shanxi University in northern China, before moving to Australia to complete a BA in Fine Art. She is currently based in Melbourne. Bess is a multidisciplinary visual artist with a focus on painting. Her works reference intersections between sensation and emotional touch, seclusion and corporeal desire; her themes include the unconscious and irrational dimensions of human existence. Her practice is also concerned with applying diverse mediums and materials to realize textural possibilities. Most works are  figurative paintings that lie between narrative and non-narrative, intentionally evading symbolic transformation and the representation of real space. As to the methodology of creation, she explores the poetics of imagery formed by the combining of content, colour, composition and other possible constituent elements, trying to  find a balance and fusion of expression and experimentation.

Dead faint

2019
Oil and tracing paper on wood

Awards

2021

Joel Elenberg Prize; judged by Anna Schwartz Gallery and Professor Callum Morton, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

Finalist for the 2021 Blackstone Gallery Works on Paper Prize (theme: STORIES), Newcastle, Australia

Finalist for Fortyfivedownstairs Emerging Artist Award, Melbourne, Australia

Finalist for the Southern Buoy Studios Portrait Prize, Melbourne, Australia

Solo Exhibitions

2022

Tonight, write you a gooey letter, Rubicon ARI, Melbourne, Australia

Give you my umbrella, BlackCat Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Write a story but lose my words, Alternating Art Space, Melbourne, Australia

2020

SOLITARY TIMES, ACAE Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Group Exhibitions

2022

In Focus: Conversations With Eight Contemporary Artists, ACAE Gallery

30 Under 30, Ascent, The Kelvin Club, Melbourne, Australia

NEW pAGE – Art FOR Tomorrow, Artoftmrw.com, virtual exhibition

2021

Better live, The Motley Bauhaus, Melbourne, Australia

Contemporary Narratives Pt. 2, London Paint Club, virtual exhibition

FEMMES & THEMS, STYLE gallery, virtual exhibition

Copper Traces in Time: Hold, Material Assembly, Melbourne, Australia

Fifty Squared Art Prize Exhibition, Brunswick Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

GROUP SHOW, Shrine Gallery, virtual exhibition

Publications

2021

Because we don’t have tomorrow (cover), issue one – This is Us, Us Jrnl, Artificially.

2018

Comfort from Darkness (illustration), E(strange)d, Bowen Street Press