Kerrie Poliness Biography

Ker­rie Poli­ness is known for her rule-based paint­ing and draw­ing works that revis­it the ideas and prac­tices of con­cep­tu­al art. Her wall draw­ings are installed by groups of par­tic­i­pants, allow­ing each indi­vid­u­al’s own process­es of inter­pre­ta­tion and deci­sion-mak­ing to inflect the final outcome.

The artist’s Wall Draw­ings chal­lenge the defin­ing con­cepts of an art­work as a unique object. Each draw­ing is a unique work of art that relies on the inter­pre­ta­tion of a set of instruc­tions that relies on archi­tec­tur­al cir­cum­stance as well as the vari­ables of hand and mate­r­i­al exe­cu­tion. The draw­ings are site spe­cif­ic and are dif­fer­ent in each loca­tion they appear. They acti­vate the space and visu­al­ly chal­lenge the spa­tial per­cep­tions and assump­tions of the viewer.

Exhi­bi­tions include: Field Draw­ing #1, HOTA, Gold Coast (2018); Every Bril­liant Eye: Aus­tralian Art of the 1990s, Nation­al Gallery of Vic­to­ria, Mel­bourne (2017); Land­scape Paint­ings (Lake Bolac and Zagreb) and Wave Draw­ings (orange and green), G‑MK, Zagreb (2014); Trace: Per­for­mance and its Doc­u­ments, Queens­land Art Gallery & Gallery of Mod­ern Art, Bris­bane (2014); Wall works, Arts Lifts, Nation­al Gallery of Aus­tralia, Can­ber­ra (2014); Mel­bourne Now, Nation­al Gallery of Vic­to­ria, Mel­bourne (2013); Ker­rie Poli­ness: Black O, Dowse Art Muse­um, Low­er Hutt, New Zealand (2013); Aus­tralian Con­tem­po­rary Draw­ing 2, Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don (2012); Red Mat­ter Wall Draw­ings 1 — 3, Kovac­ka 3 gallery, Dubrovnik (1997); Black O Wall Draw­ings 3 & 4, Gal­lerie St. Toma, Muse­um of the City of Rov­inj, Istria (1997); and Wall Draw­ing #1, Phoenix Hotel, San Fran­cis­co (1995).

Poli­ness has devel­oped a num­ber of site-spe­cif­ic pub­lic art­works includ­ing: Field Draw­ing #1, May­war Green, Gallery of Mod­ern Art, Bris­bane (2014); Wave Draw­ings, High­point Shop­ping Cen­tre, Mel­bourne (2013); Field Draw­ing #1, The Ago­ra, Latrobe Uni­ver­si­ty, Mel­bourne; and instal­la­tions of the Black O Wall Draw­ings at the Monash Uni­ver­si­ty Library, Mel­bourne (1998) and the Gov­ern­ment Super­an­nu­a­tion Build­ing, Mel­bourne (2000).

Pub­lic col­lec­tions include the Nation­al Gallery of Aus­tralia, Can­ber­ra; Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary Art Aus­tralia, Syd­ney; Nation­al Gallery of Vic­to­ria, Mel­bourne; Queens­land Art Gallery & Gallery of Mod­ern Art, Bris­bane; Hei­de Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, Mel­bourne; and Dowse Muse­um, Low­er Hutt.

Text courtesy Anna Schwartz Gallery.