Contemporary Australia: Women

208 Selected group exhibitions: ‘The Vernacular Terrain’, IDAprojects, Songzhuang Art Center, China, 2008; ‘Anne Landa Award’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2006–07; ‘2004: Australian Culture Now’, National Gallery of Victoria and Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, 2004; ‘Supernatural Artificial: Contemporary Photo-based Art from Australia’, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan, 2004. Jenny Watson b.1951 Melbourne, Vic | Lives and works in Brisbane Jenny Watson is known for personal works that document her life and dreams. In the 1980s, Watson made a break with the large, photorealistic paintings of her early career and began painting naive figures onto materials selected for their cultural significance, geographic origins and individual histories. Her deceptively simple works explore daily life, with a particular emphasis on women’s experiences, as well as subconscious reactions and interactions between people. Selected solo exhibitions: ‘Jenny Watson: Here, There and Everywhere’, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 2012; ‘Five Paintings About a Mobile Phone’, Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide, 2011; ‘The Daisy Show’, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 2010; ‘Jenny Watson’, CIAP Gallery, Hasselt, Belgium, 2010. Selected group exhibitions: ‘We Call Them Pirates Out Here’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; ‘Melbourne><Brisbane: Punk, Art and After’, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 2010; ‘Avoiding Myth and Message: Australian Artists and the Literary World’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2009. Judy Watson Waanyi people b.1959 Mundubbera, QLD | Lives and works in Brisbane Internationally respected artist Judy Watson is best known for her lyrical paintings of country, taking special inspiration from the Waanyi country of her forebears in north-west Queensland. Much of her work explores the life experiences of her matrilineal line, referring to the troubled histories of frontier life from the perspective of several generations of Aboriginal women. Working with a variety of natural materials, Watson constructs evocative and troubling works that contribute a distinctive voice to Australian cultural life. Selected solo exhibitions: ‘waterline’, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, 2012 and Australia Embassy, Washington DC, United States, 2011; ‘Bad and Doubtful Debts’, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, 2009; ‘Judy Watson: Selected Works 1990–2005’, University of Queensland Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 2005–06; ‘sacred ground beating heart: works by Judy Watson 1989–2003’, John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, 2003, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2004, South Saigon Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 2004, Finomel Gallery, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2004, and Cultural Centre of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines, 2004. Sally Smart b.1960 Quorn, SA | Lives and works in Melbourne A practising artist since the mid 1980s, Sally Smart is a senior figure in contemporary Australian art. For much of her career she has engaged with theoretical debates about gender and identity. Her paintings, sculptures, assemblages and large-scale installations often reference ‘women’s work’ and traditional handicrafts in order to establish a layering of meaning where the handmade and domestic converge. Other themes in Smart’s works relate to the body, the home, and the art historical legacies of Dada, Surrealism and the early twentieth-century Avant-garde art in Europe. Selected solo exhibitions: ‘Flaubert’s Puppets’, Postmasters Gallery, New York, United States, 2011; ‘In Her Nature’, Breenspace, Sydney, 2011; ‘Femmage, Shadows and Symptoms’, McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria, 2010. Selected group exhibitions: ‘The Devil Had a Daughter’, Monash University Art Museum, Melbourne, 2011; ‘Your move: Australian Artists Play Chess’, Bendigo Regional Gallery, Bendigo, 2010; ‘Stick It! Collage in Australian Art’, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2010; ‘No‑name Station’, Iberia Art Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, 2010. Soda_Jerk Dan Angeloro | b.1977 Sydney, NSW Dominique Angeloro | b.1979 Sydney, NSW est. 2002 Sydney, NSW | Live and work in Sydney and Berlin Soda_Jerk is a collaboration between Dan Angeloro and Dominique Angeloro. The duo work with audiovisual samples to create speculative narratives that trouble existing formulations of history, culture and politics. Soda_Jerk’s archival image practice merges research, documentary and speculative fiction, primarily taking the form of video installations and video performance lectures. By strategically reimagining the recent past, the duo are interested in producing competing counter‑mythologies in order to open up new possibilities for the present. Selected exhibitions: ‘Hollywood Burn’, Other Cinema, San Francisco, United States, 2012; ‘Star Voyager’, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, 2011; ‘Short Sharp Shocks’, Barbican, London, United Kingdom, 2011; ‘Astro Black’, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany, 2011; ‘Burst in the Bubble’, Re: Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2011; Premier of Queensland’s National New Media Art Award, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2010; ‘30 Seconds Off an Inch’, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, United States, 2009; ‘Primavera 08’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2008. Wakartu Cory Surprise Walmajarri people 1929–2011 Wakartu Cory Surprise was one of the great painters of the Mangkaja Arts Centre in Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia. Her bold, abstract works are joyful and vivid explorations of the spirit and of the features of her country. Through her works, she describes places she had walked as a young woman and knew intimately. Surprise’s deep knowledge of the desert environment and its law remained essential elements of her work and she painted about them until her last days. Selected solo exhibitions: ‘Wakartu Cory Surprise’, Seva Frangos Art, Perth, 2011; ‘New Works by Wakartu Cory Surprise’, Silvershot Gallery, Melbourne, 2007; ‘Wakartu Cory Surprise’, Silvershot Gallery, Melbourne, 2006; ‘Mangkaja Arts presents Wakartu Cory Surprise’, Raft Artspace, Darwin, 2006. Selected group exhibitions: ‘Sally Gabori and Wakartu Cory Surprise’, Raft Artspace, Alice Springs, 2011; ‘Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route’, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 2010–11 (touring nationally 2011–12); Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards, 2010–11; 25th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (Silver Jubilee), Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, 2008. Hiromi Tango b.1976 Japan | Lives and works in Brisbane Hiromi Tango’s practice is often collaborative and site‑specific. Her works emerge from an ongoing process of self-analysis and reflect an intimate dialogue with her physical body, thoughts and emotions. Working with an assortment of materials — wool, twine, paper, plastic flowers, books, notes, letters, dolls and personal effects that are meaningful to the artist and her collaborators — Tango’s works are a visual riot of colour and woven textures. Selected solo exhibitions: ‘Garden’, Adelaide Railway Station, presented by Carclew Youth Arts, Adelaide, 2010; ‘Absence’, Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, 2008. Selected group exhibitions: ‘Primavera 2011’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2011; ‘Behind the Door: NOW RIGHT NOW!’, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, 2010; ‘Fresh Cut’, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2009. Monika Tichacek b.1975 Switzerland | Lives and works in Mullumbimby, NSW Monika Tichacek is best known for photographs and videos that explore the constructs of femininity and expose torturous and controlling egos. However, her work altered radically after an extended journey through the deserts of the United States and the jungles of South America, as well as time spent in the New South Wales bush. Tichacek is now focused on making large-scale works on paper that convey the awe inspired by nature. Informed by her exposure to Indigenous traditions, Tichacek’s works explore the interconnectedness of the natural ecosystem and the place of humans within it. Selected solo exhibitions: ‘To All My Relations’, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne, 2011; ‘The Shadowers’, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 2005; Artspace, Sydney, 2005; and Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne, 2005.