How Cute Is Cute? brought together Christina Darras, Leanne Bock, Rebecca Marshall and Stephanie Hicks to explore cuteness as a surprisingly complex idea. More than a visual style, cuteness can suggest innocence, comfort and safety, while also making products, images and information feel more approachable.
The exhibition asked why adults are drawn back to memories and sensations of childhood, and how cuteness can operate as both reassurance and disguise. Across collage, painting, sculpture and drawing, the artists approached the subject with humour, tenderness and unease.
Four approaches to cuteness
Leanne Bock’s vivid, witty collages treated cuteness as a secret weapon that can bring tenderness into a hardened world. Rebecca Marshall’s small-scale, high-intensity paintings explored a candy-coated sensory aesthetic that reaches beyond surface charm. Stephanie Hicks’s miniature assemblages and sculptures invited curiosity and an open-hearted reconsideration of beauty and desire. Christina Darras used cuteness as a lens through which life can appear comfortable and safe—then reversed that expectation in white-on-black drawings.
The exhibition was curated by Christina Darras and presented in the Back Gallery at Off the Kerb.