JANET LAURENCE
ARTIST PROFILE
Janet Laurence’s work echoes architecture while retaining organic qualities and a sense of instability and transience. Her work occupies the liminal zones or meeting places of art, science, imagination and memory. Profoundly aware of the interconnection of all life forms, Laurence often produces work in response to specific sites or environments using a diverse range of materials. Alchemical transformation, history and perception are underlying themes.
Laurence exhibits widely and has an impressive record of representation in important group exhibitions, including the 9th Biennale of Sydney (1992) and Australian Perspecta (1985, 1991, 1997). In 2003 she was invited to create a permanent installation for the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial in Japan. Following Laurence’s solo exhibition in 1991 at Seibu Gallery, Tokyo and since she was awarded an Australia Council studio residency in Tokyo in 1998, she has exhibited regularly in solo and group exhibitions in Tokyo and Nagoya.
Her public commissions and architectural collaborations include significant national and international projects, such as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Australian War Memorial, Canberra (1993); The Edge of the Trees (with Fiona Foley), Museum of Sydney (1994); 49 Veils (with Jisuk Han), award-winning windows for the Central Synagogue, Sydney (1999); In the Shadow, Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Homebush Bay (1998–2000); Stilled Lives, collection showcases, permanent display, Melbourne Museum (2000); the Australian War Memorial (with Tonkin Zulaikha Greer architects), Hyde Park, London; and The Breath We Share, The Sidney Myer Commemorative Sculpture, Victoria (both 2003).
Janet Laurence is represented in major Australian and international collections and has been included in national survey exhibitions. Pesaro Publishing released a major book on her work in 2006. |
