Janet Laurence

Vanishing series: Glance 2009
30 x 105 cm
Mirror, duraclear, oil and pigment on acrylic

Courtesy the artist and Breenspace
 

Janet Laurence is a major Australian artist whose installations and artworks reflect her life-long interest in an ecological understanding of the world. She believes in the interconnectedness of all things and her work invites us to pause and share the experience.

Janet Laurence studied at the University of Sydney; Academia Belle Arte, Perugia; New York Studio School; College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales; and is completing her PhD (Architecture) at RMIT, Melbourne. She lives and works in Sydney.

Her numerous solo exhibitions include (among others) the Echigo-Tsumari Triennale, Japan; Bartlett School of Architecture, London; Art Gallery of New South Wales; Queensland Art Gallery; Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne; Artspace, Sydney; Gallery APA, Nagoya, Japan; Centre for Contemporary Art, Hamilton, NZ; Sherman Galleries, Sydney; Annandale Galleries, Sydney; Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth; Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts; Wollongong Regional Gallery; Jan Manton Gallery, Brisbane; Adelaide Festival Gallery; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; and Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville.

Laurence has participated in group exhibitions at the Biennale of Sydney; National Gallery of Australia; National Gallery of Victoria; Museum of Contemporary Art; McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria; Jewish Museum of Melbourne; Auckland Art Gallery, NZ; Sherman Galleries, Sydney; Annandale Galleries; regional and university galleries in Australia and venues in Japan and South Korea.  

Her major public commissions and collaborations include the ‘Tomb of the Unknown Soldier’, Australian War Memorial; ‘The Edge of the Trees’, Museum of Sydney; ‘49 Veils’, award-winning windows for the Central Synagogue, Sydney; ‘In the Shadow’, Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Homebush Bay; The Australian War Memorial, Hyde Park, London; Sidney Myer Commemorative Sculpture; and ‘Waterveil’, CH2 Building for Melbourne City Council.

Laurence’s work is represented in the National Gallery of Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales; National Gallery of Victoria; Queensland Art Gallery; Australian War Memorial; Commonwealth Law Court, Brisbane; Parliament House Collection; Faber-Castell Collection Australia; Herald and Weekly Times; Macquarie Bank; Chartwell Collection; APA Collection, Nagoya, Japan; Itoki Collection, Tokyo; S.C.H.E.M.A. Collection, Florence; Seibu Collection, Tokyo; World Bank Collection, Washington; and Australian regional and university collections.

Pesaro Publishing released a major book on Laurence’s work in 2006.