Catalogue Essay by Brett Lethbridge, Director, Lethbridge Gallery Brisbane; Dreaming in Metaphors + Survey Exhibition, Brisbane 14 Aug - 1 Sept, 2020

I came to Brisbane as a teenager to study at UQ.  One of the great freedoms of leaving home is the discovery of new worlds outside your family’s routines where you develop your own tastes and passions. So it came to be that I stumbled on Cintra Galleries on Park Road, Milton.  The gallery was welcoming and had an elegance that was elevated but not elitist. This place was my first experience seeing Cynthia Breusch’s artworks and I was moved by their raw expressive power.

The artworks combined an understanding of the figure, the landscape and light but without an obsessive duty to photographic reference.  It seemed the primary purpose of the paintings was to sing at an emotional level to the viewer and to invite them into its world of metaphor. The pieces simmered with truth, yearning and a search for meaning. It’s my pleasure all these years later to be host of the 40th anniversary exhibition, and to see many important works from her career together again in all their power.

Lethbridge Gallery is delighted to present Dreaming in Metaphors, Cynthia’s latest collection of paintings which pay tribute to the beauty of the natural world and the fragility of being. The new exhibition shows alongside Cynthia’s first major survey to celebrate 40 years of exhibiting. Revisiting work and archival materials form over 35 solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, the show features 23 artworks capturing moments of Cynthia’s career.