Jacky Redgate is one of the more significant artists to emerge in Australia during the 1980s. Jacky Redgate: the logic of vision brought together the holdings of her work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Putting the emphasis on her photographic practice, the exhibition surveyed the artist’s creative trajectory from 1985 until 2012.

Born London 1955, Redgate immigrated with her family to Australia in 1967. Her participation in major exhibitions like the 1985 Perspecta helped redefine the view of photography as an art form equal to any other – a position argued by other artists such as Anne Ferran, Debra Phillips, Bill Henson and Anne Zahalka.

Redgate’s oeuvre is notable for its consistent interplay between photography and sculpture. The environments and structures seen in her images are specifically staged for the camera. Using quotidian objects like playing cards, found photographs, mirrors and various domestic items, the artist conjures up elegant visual puzzles by manipulating basic elements such as light, scale, depth and colour.

Central to Redgate’s interests is the exploration of culture and systems of knowledge that condition how we see the world. Her works utilise complex and multi-layered references to the Western histories of art, design, philosophy and science, which she places under rigorous scrutiny. These allusions are subtly woven into the fabric of her images – their meaning and resonance unfold only gradually upon careful inspection.