The work is made almost entirely out of clothing worn and donated by the artist’s friends and family; their personal traces imbued in each garment become a significant thematic constituent. Ambitious by nature and rigorous in process, the artist diligently stitches together the materials by machine and by hand, simultaneously rendering detailed figures amid a chorus of various fabrics and textures. With each stitch, both nurture and rupture occur—the process is as tender as it is aggressive. Referencing painting in subject and display while innovating materially in a contemporary reclamation of the textile medium, Gutman’s work queries the boundaries between subject and object, compliance and deviance, past and present.

In 2023, Gutman won the prestigious Archibald Prize held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales with her portrait of singer/songwriter Jess Cerro, best known as Montaigne, Head in the sky, feet on the ground (2023). In 2022, she was selected to exhibit as a part of Primavera: Young Australian Artists curated by Micheal Do at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. She was a finalist in the 2021 Ramsay Prize at the Art Gallery of South Australia and the 2020 NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship at Artspace Sydney.

Her practice has been profiled in the Sydney Morning Herald, ABC Arts, Art Almanac, Ocula and Vogue Australia. Her work has been exhibited across Australia and internationally with shows in Sydney, Adelaide, Rome and New York City. Gutman holds an MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA in Painting from UNSW Art and Design.