2026 SALON DES REFUSÉS
Tribe
Joanne Brooker
- Sitter: Alex Van Gestel
- Medium: Acrylic on Linen
- Dimensions: 61cm x 91cm
About the artwork
Alex Van Gestel is seventeen years old, artist Joanne Brooker’s grandson, born and raised in Brisbane. This portrait captures him suspended between adolescence and early manhood. His direct, defiant gaze meets the viewer, suggesting both self-assertion and resistance.
“What reads at first as toughness reveals itself as defence: a young person rehearsing strength while negotiating the vulnerable passage into adulthood” says Brooker. “Though depicted alone, he embodies the dynamics of a wider tribe, the codes of loyalty, hierarchy and belonging that shape young male identity.” The contrast between the soft, unresolved edges and the detailed face reinforces the instability of transition.
About the artist
Joanne Brooker is a Brisbane based artist whose practice was shaped by a decade as an editorial illustrator for The Courier-Mail, where she developed discipline, speed and conceptual precision alongside a clear understanding of art’s commercial realities and political force. She now creates portraits to her own inspiration and on her own terms.
