Collection: Jennifer Allnutt - Melencolia

Melencolia is a new series of highly refined paintings by Jennifer Allnutt, through which many facets of melancholy are examined. Using Albrecht Dürer’s 16th-century engraving "Melencolia I" as a point of departure, Allnutt draws on her deep admiration for and curiosity towards the work, expanding on her own experiences of melancholy. Through research and painting, she explores a temperament that has been historically misunderstood, yet remains deeply ubiquitous.

Opening reception: Oct 3rd, 5 - 8pm. This is a free event. As Beinart Gallery is a licensed venue, any minors attending the opening reception will need to be accompanied by a responsible adult.

This exhibition will run from Oct 4th - Oct 25th 2026, and will coincide with Hannah Flowers' North of Earthly Reason, and the group exhibition, Demons in the Spring - Curated by Hannah Flowers.

Paradoxically, Allnutt paints the subject of melancholy to avoid feeling melancholy. She considers the vital relationship between this temperament and creative activity, the fine line between divine inspiration and divine madness, and weeping as a singular cathartic and truly human experience. Her oil paintings oscillate between exercises in futility and hopeful threshold moments, suggesting that true beauty may be inseparable from a touch of melancholy.

Ultimately, Melencolia is a personal cri de coeur, analogous in spirit to Plath but augmented by surrealism, myth and symbolism. Allnutt suggests that the melancholic temperament may be a necessary precursor to reaching greater heights of imagination or truth, and that the resulting works of art might serve as a vital counterweight to a certain kind of madness.

Jennifer Allnutt is an artist based in Brisbane, Australia who works in the tradition of oil painting. She graduated from the University of South Australia with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (First Class Honours) in 2011 and a Master of Teaching in 2016. She’s exhibited around Australia, the US and New Zealand. Allnutt was a finalist and third prize winner (Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2024/2025) and the winner of the Lethbridge Small Scale Art Award (2024). Allnutt’s work is best characterised by dark romanticism and her blending of figurative surrealism with picturesque florals that evoke a Northern Renaissance sensibility.