Tyza Stewart is a visual artist who explores gender identity through an art practice based in continual self-portraiture. Tyza uses documentation and memories from their own childhood as well as more current experiences to inform an interrogation of understandings of normality in relation to gender. Resulting self-portraits depict ambiguously gendered selves that publicly fail to conform to gender norms as the works are exhibited. By both resisting and engaging with popular understandings of transsexual narratives, Tyza highlights some alternatives to the strict binary understandings of gender that constantly proliferate within our society.
Tyza is a recent Honors graduate of the Queensland College of Art and is currently represented by Heiser Gallery, Brisbane. Tyza’s work has appeared in numerous exhibitions in Australia, including 15 artists at Redcliffe Art Gallery, The Churchie at Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane, Breakthrough, Gympie Regional Art Gallery, Interstate Romance at Pseudo Space, Sydney and BEAF 2013 at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Brisbane.
Untitled, Oil and screen print on board, 2011