The Eye Touch presents the works of emerging artists Rhys Cousins and Emma x Zhang. This showcase features a vibrant array of multi and mixed-media works, including plaster and canvas paintings, projection-sculpture and floor furnishings; all exploring the intricate interplay between colour and texture.
Rhys Cousins critically examines our perceptions of digital interfaces and urban landscapes, provoking thoughts about the impact of technology on our everyday lives. His work investigates the haptic possibilities of an increasingly digital existence.
Emma x Zhang portrays ethereal realms through abstract forms in iridescent-pastel colour palettes. She merges traditional techniques and digital image processes in an attempt to offer refuge from the relentless glow of digital screens.
For this exhibition, Cousins and Zhang have collaborated on a projection-sculpture that embodies a passion for exploring perceived “dichotomies” of the visual and tactile.
Rhys Cousins & Emma x Zhang
The Eye Touch
3 – 12 May 2024
About Rhys
Rhys Cousins is a Melbourne artist who is necessarily transdisciplinary, blending formal education in landscape architecture with works across sculpture, installation, and digital screens. Cousins’ practice delves into the phenomenology of landscape, through a process-based approach acting as a enquiry into qualities of diversity, change, and variation. Winner of the 2022 emerging artist award at FortyFive Downstairs, he has been a finalist in numerous art prizes including the Sunshine Coast Art Prize 2023 and Footscray Art Prize 2023 and has exhibited in a duo across Australia.
Rhys is a practice-based PhD candidate in the School of Design at RMIT University with his current workings and experimentation taking form as projects which act as ruminations on the quality of texture.
Find more at rhyscousins.com & @tangere_texture
About Emma
Emma x Zhang (EXZ) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Melbourne, Australia, who works across painting, digital prints, and light projection installations. She completed her Bachelor of Design and a Master of Fine Arts at RMIT University. EXZ's artistic practice delves into immersive viewing experiences, featuring luminosity, vibrant colour palettes, and abstract concepts by fusing digital and traditional techniques. In 2023, her video piece Enter the Underworld received the Digital Art category award at the Global Design Graduation Show, supported by Arts Thread and Gucci, and was also featured on the Outdoor Screen at Bunjil Place in Melbourne. In 2024, she was honored with The National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) Ignition Prize, recognizing her professional practice.
Find more at emma-x-zhang.com & @emma.x.zhang