Contemporary Australia: Women

205 Exhibiting artists Free Range Gallery, Perth, 2009; ‘From the beginning; one more time’, Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, 2009. Selected group exhibitions: ‘Primavera 2011’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2011; ‘PICA Salon’, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, 2011; ‘SPECTACLE/OBSTACLE’, First Draft Gallery, Sydney, 2011; ‘NEW11’, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2011; ‘Rounds’, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, 2010. Lauren Brincat b.1980 Sydney, NSW | Lives and works in Sydney A self-described painter, in recent times Lauren Brincat has worked predominantly in performance, drawing inspiration from durational, body-oriented forms of practices that came to prominence during the 1970s. Her action-based works are often presented as video documentation, sometimes accompanied by a live element. Frequently collaborative, Brincat has worked with musicians to create soundscapes or ‘happenings’ in real time. Selected exhibitions: ‘Nothing Like Performance’, Artspace, Sydney, 2011; ‘Social Sculpture’, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Sydney, 2011; ‘MONA FOMA Festival of Music and Art’, Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Hobart, 2010; ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’, Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, 2010; ‘Best Time Ever’ and ‘Where the Party Is’, Splendour in the Grass, Woodford, Queensland, 2010. Brown Council Frances Barrett | b.1983 Sydney, NSW Kate Blackmore | b.1982 Adelaide, SA Kelly Doley | b.1984 Melbourne, Vic Diana Smith | b.1981 Sydney, NSW est. 2007 Sydney, NSW | Live and work in Sydney Brown Council is a collaboration between four Sydney‑based artists. Working together since 2007, the group makes video and performance works that blur the distinction between gallery and stage, and between high and popular culture. Brown Council draws on the histories of both visual and performance art, combining these sources with elements of vaudeville, street theatre, amateur magic and stand-up comedy. Brown Council’s works often engage with notions of endurance, humiliation and spectacle, dissolving the boundaries between artist and audience in the process. Selected solo exhibitions: ‘Group Work’, MOP Projects, Sydney, 2011; ‘Big Show’, 24 Hr Art, Darwin, 2011; ‘A Comedy’, Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, 2010. Selected group exhibitions: ‘Nothing Like Performance’, Artspace, Sydney, 2011; ‘Primavera 2011’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2011; ‘20/20’, Damien Minton Annex Space, Sydney, 2011; ‘Tell Me Tell Me: Australian and Korean Art 1976–2011’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2011; ‘Liveworks’, Performance Space, Sydney, 2010; ‘The View from Here: 19 Perspectives on Feminism’, Next Wave Festival, 2010. Kirsty Bruce b.1973 Brisbane, Qld | Lives and works in Brisbane Kirsty Bruce creates finely detailed portraits in watercolour and pencil. Drawing on an array of pop culture sources for her subject matter, the images of men and women that capture her interest are most often from the pages of fashion magazines. She liberates her subjects from their original context and replicates them exactly, arranging them en masse on a gallery wall, leaving her subjects exposed and vulnerable. Selected solo exhibitions: ‘Kirsty Bruce / Sam Mitchell ’, Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 2012; ‘Paintings and Paper Cuts’, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, 2009; ‘Fragments’, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 2008; ‘Unromantic’, Metro Arts, Brisbane, 2007. Selected group exhibitions: ‘Remarks on Colour’, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane, 2011; ‘Feminism Never Happened’, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2010; ‘I Walk the Line: New Australian Drawing’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2009. Bindi Cole Wathaurung people b.1975 Melbourne, Vic | Lives and works in Melbourne Bindi Cole has both Aboriginal and British heritage, and her work tends to focus on explorations of her own identity. Cole’s practice encompasses painting, collage, text, video, performance, soundscapes and projections in works that are often deeply personal. Selected solo exhibitions: ‘Seventy Times Seven’, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne, 2011; ‘Sistagirls’, Nellie Castan Gallery, Sydney, 2010 (and touring nationally in 2010–11); ‘Inheritance’, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, 2009; ‘Not Really Aboriginal’, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, 2008. Selected group exhibitions: ‘Saying No: Reconciling Spirituality and Resistance in Indigenous Australian Art’, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, New York, United States, 2011; ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne. 2009; ‘Big Blak Heart’, The Substation, Melbourne, and Tsukuba University, Japan, 2009. Agatha Gothe-Snape b.1980 Sydney, NSW | Lives and works in Sydney Agatha Gothe-Snape’s practice questions the role of individuals and artists within space. Her work takes multiple forms — painting, sculpture, performance and projections — and she also collaborates with a number of performers. In 2009, she co-founded ‘The Cosmic Battle for Your Heart’ to explore art in a domestic context. Gothe-Snape often relies on simple communication tools — printed T-shirts, PowerPoint presentations, or working onto a wall — to deliver text‑based declarations that direct people’s movement or draw the viewer’s attention to an idea or concept. Selected solo exhibitions: ‘Four Parts’, Kalimanrawlins, Melbourne, 2012; ‘Every Artist Remembered’, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney, 2009; ‘Relax Your Mind’, MOP Projects, Sydney, 2008; ‘Ahead of Time 1992–2006’, Scott Donovan Projects, Sydney, 2006. Selected group exhibitions: ‘Art #2: ACCA Regional Tour’, Horsham Regional Art Gallery, Horsham, Victoria, 2011; ‘Social Sculpture’, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Sydney, 2011; ‘Primavera 2010’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; ‘NEW010’, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2010; ‘Colleagues and Peers (Hokey Pokey)’, The Cosmic Battle for Your Heart, Sydney, 2009; ‘Oblivion Pavilion’, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, 2008; ‘Postcards from the Edge’, Backloft Gallery, Dublin, Ireland, 2007. Marie Hagerty b.1964 Sydney, NSW | Lives and works in Canberra Since her first exhibitions in the 1980s, Marie Hagerty has established a reputation as a painter whose work engages with the visual legacies of abstraction and figuration. Hagerty’s recent paintings offer the viewer a series of puzzling juxtapositions — between simplified and curvaceous shapes, and between eloquent lines and positive or negative space — often in a restricted colour palette. Selected solo exhibitions: ‘Marie Hagerty’, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne, 2011; ‘Marie Hagerty: New Paintings’, Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, 2010; ‘Marie Hagerty: Survey Exhibition’, Canberra Museum and Art Gallery, Canberra, 2007. Selected group exhibitions: ‘Beleura National Works on Paper’, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, 2010; ‘Something in the Air: Collage and Assemblage in Canberra Region Art’, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra, 2010; ‘Sweet Spot’, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 2009. Fiona Hall b.1953 Sydney, NSW | Lives and works in Adelaide Fiona Hall is a leading contemporary artist whose career has spanned more than 30 years, and whose works enchant audiences both nationally and internationally. Recently, Hall has focused on transforming ordinary things into extraordinary objects, fashioning new worlds from today’s leftovers and excesses, and engaging with a number of themes: the division between good and evil, the complex histories of colonial and postcolonial trade, and the interconnections between botany, classification, trade and power. Selected solo exhibitions: ‘Fiona Hall, Force Field’, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2008 (toured to City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand, 2008; and Christchurch City Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, New Zealand, 2009); ‘The Art of Fiona Hall’, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, and Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2005.