It is fitting that the title for this exhibition, Figura, the figure, is a feminine noun in both Italian and Spanish languages, regardless of the gender of the figure being represented. Firstly, it continues Jan Murray’s preoccupation with questions of desire, consumer culture and female empowerment that was so powerfully wrought in two previous exhibitions, Redress (2015) and Inverso (2020). Secondly it provides a direct connection with Murray’s early “encounters” with the “puffer”, beginning when she arrived at the Australia Council’s Milan studio in 1999 and found everyone was wearing puffers, a form of uniform dress she thought (at the time) that she would never contemplate wearing. Later, in 2010 when she was awarded the Australia Council’s Rome Studio and spent time in Italy, Murray had to come to terms with the fact that everyone wore puffers and re-evaluate her own prejudices towards this ubiquitous garment. She noted that Italians have a seasonal uniform and when winter comes it is time to bring out the puffer. Puffers have become the lingua franca in the garment world. They are warm and versatile and cross culture and genders. It is these latter qualities of ambiguity that comes into play in the current exhibition, Figura. Read more on the website. Images courtesy the artist and Charles Nodrum Gallery