‘No, Close Your Eyes or It Won’t Work’
Solo Exhibition by Loralee Jade
I made these works in moments where something felt fragile and needed protecting.
The titles came first, or alongside the paintings, phrases that kept appearing in my mind as I worked. Things like don't blink, hold still, keep them closed. They're not meant as instructions in a controlling sense. They're the kinds of things you say when something delicate is happening and too much attention, or the wrong kind of attention, might undo it.
The paintings don't want to be looked at too hard. Bodies come in and out of focus, colour presses and then gives way, forms never fully arrive. I wasn't interested in clarity or resolution. The more I tried to make things explicit, the less true they felt. What mattered was staying with the sensation, letting the work remain slightly out of reach.
Working on silk shaped that approach. It doesn't hold paint on the surface, it absorbs it. The pigment moves, stains, bleeds, remembers. I don't fully control where it goes, and I don't want to. What's left feels more like a trace than an image, evidence of pressure, holding, or something having passed through.
Care runs through this body of work, but not as comfort. It's negotiated. It asks for stillness, restraint, trust. Many of the titles feel like fragments of language spoken during intimacy or vulnerability, moments where interruption, certainty, or explanation would break the spell.
No, Close Your Eyes or It Won't Work isn't about turning away. It's about staying without insisting on understanding. Letting things be felt rather than resolved. Trusting that sometimes the most honest way to witness is not to look harder, but to stay
‘No, Close Your Eyes or It Won’t Work’ By Loralee Jade
2026 - Upcoming Solo Exhibition
‘No, Close Your Eyes or It Won’t Work’ - Loralee Jade
ON VIEW | 14 MARCH - 30 MARCH 2026
OPENING DAY | We warmly invite you to join us for the opening of Loralee Jade’s upcoming solo exhibition, ‘No, Close Your Eyes or It Won’t Work’. Join us on the morning of Saturday 14th March for complimentary coffee and croissants, we would love to see you there.
Saturday 14th March / 10am–2pm.
To request the catalogue, please contact hello@hake.house directly. This new body of work continues Loralee’s intuitive and evocative exploration of image, memory, and atmosphere - inviting viewers into a quietly immersive visual experience.
CATALOGUE QUESTIONS | Click Here
OPENING DAY | Saturday 14th March, 10am - 2pm
LOCATION : HAKE, HOUSE OF ART 275 Harbord Road, Dee Why, 2099.
Loralee Jade.
“When painting I lose track of time. I’m aware that something is happening but I don’t know what it is. It’s much like the wordless thoughts conjured by looking into a fire or the tender recollection of a dream upon waking. It’s more about the feeling than the seeing. Perhaps it’s all just a forlorn attempt to give shape to feelings of compassion, grief and horror.”
-Loralee Jade
Loralee Jade’s painting is concerned with the ways that painting can be utilised to look at what can be represented beyond the use of language. The delicate, intuitively developed works of Jade’s practice draws upon memory and personal experience, offering an evocative visual space that is suggestive of figuration, whilst simultaneously dissolving into abstraction. The experience is sensuous, luscious, bodily and emotional.
UPCOMING SOLO EXHIBITION | MARCH 2026 | To enquire please reach out here.
Available Works on Silk
To view the works in person or make an enquiry please reach out here.
Works on Canvas
Works on paper
2024 - Through This To That
PREVIOUS SOLO EXHIBITION 2024
Show Notes
‘There is no clear cut sentence I can write to explain what this collection of paintings is about. It’s much more nuanced than I could possibly depict through words. All I can say is that the creation of these works shared space with the tenderness of resurfacing after a mental breakdown, the pure joy and excitement with the news that I am becoming a mother for the first time, the heartache of family fall outs, the grief of change and the magic of simple summer days.
On one hand everything is simple, with clear edges and boundaries. Contents held in one place, spilling at a minimal, and if present containable. And on the other it is so complex and multifaceted, the forms move and hover in all directions. The colours almost vibrate off of each other in a rhythmic dance of compromise and leaps of faith.
There is immediacy and pouring over, clean cut and murkiness - all hold truth in this moment. Various cogs are turning, some have never been in service before (in this lifetime), some are worn out and creviced. These parts are clumsily learning to work together. One constant is movement, some slow and measured, others wild and erratic.
I feel exactly like that. Full of shifting colours that simultaneously contrast and compliment each other, the tension and tenderness of transitions, when you’re no longer who you once were and have yet to arrive at who you’re becoming. Bursting with equal parts joy, gratitude, fear and worry. Through This To That is a plea for tenderness while my heart rearranges.’
Loralee Jade's highly anticipated solo exhibition,'THROUGH THIS TO THAT' featured a combination of her sought after silk pieces and works on canvas full of shifting colours that contrast and compliment one another.
CATALOGUE
Artworks on canvas and linen.
CATALOGUE
Artworks on silk.
CATALOGUE
Artworks on paper.
ON THE JOURNAL
Vol. 06 Loralee Jade / Solo Exhibition
On Saturday 6 April 2024 we had the honour of opening Loralee Jade’s solo exhibition at the gallery with an intimate dinner alongside friends of The House and Loralee’s Family.
View the journal here.