Beyond the never seen exhibition at Backspace Gallery shows works of father and daughter, Paul and Kate Vclek

Vclek's artwork is on display at Backspace Gallery alongside the works of her late father, Paul Vlcek.

"Looking at some of his work, and crying lots, and getting in touch with my emotions and my own psychological processes, because that's what he was doing," she said.

"He did say that his art was very therapeutic for him, and that it was very much a psychological investigation, so I decided to do my own psychological investigation into my grief of losing my father."

The senior Vlcek died in a boating accident in 2018, and his surrealist work, which had not been publicly shown before, he used to explore his experiences living with schizophrenia.

A self-taught painter and accomplished musician, Paul Vlcek was described by his daughter as a gentle, generous, and creative man.

Vlcek said in preparing work for the show, she moved away from her usual controlled approach and adopted a practice closer to her father's experimental way of working.

"The opposite approach my father took to his work, it was sort of like, 'well, here's the canvas, here's some paint, I'm just gonna move all around, and see what happens'," she said.

"I literally just stood in the studio and had a cry, put some music on and I just let whatever happened happened, I just grabbed a big piece of charcoal, and just started basically scribbling and then slowly, something started to come out of it".

"I wanted to keep it a lot looser and, and keep the process nice and organic, and not interfere too much."

Vlcek's career in art began with her first piece commissioned in high school, going on to study visual arts at the University of Ballarat.

She has worked on botanical commissions for various collections in Australia and internationally, has illustrated several scientific publications, and regularly exhibits her botanical studies at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne.

Vlcek said if her father saw the exhibition, it would "blow his mind".

"His message was, 'don't be afraid to go on your own journey and be your own person and do something different and go to those dark places, because there's a lot of things that you can learn there that can help not just yourself, but a lot of other people as well'."

"'You know, the world's a difficult place to live in, but it doesn't mean that you can't find your own way and you can't leave it a more beautiful place than you came into it'."

Beyond the never seen will run until 22 May, 2022 at Backspace Gallery.

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