Justene Williams

Last updated

Justene Williams
Born1970 (1970)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
NationalityAustralian
OccupationArtist
Known for Photography, Australian art, multimedia art, Contemporary art
Notable workThe Curtain Breathed Deeply, Artspace, Sydney (2014); Handbag Hammer Meditation, La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, Montréal, 2013;

Justene Williams (born 1970) is an Australian artist. Williams works across different media including photography, video, performance, installation and sound. [1] Williams has exhibited widely throughout Australia and internationally. [2] [1] Her works of art are held in a number of public collections including Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, National Gallery of Australia and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

Contents

Life

Williams was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1970. [1] She graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Western Sydney University in 1991. [3] She has a background in dance and has also worked as a window dresser. [4] Williams moved to Boston, USA in 2005, which precipitated a significant shift in her practice. [3] Williams received her Masters of Visual Art from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, in 2006. [3] Williams is currently teaching at Queensland College of Art in Brisbane where she is head of sculpture. [3]

Early art

Williams' early work was focused in the medium of photography and utilised the ad hoc nature of disposable cameras and one-hour printing labs. The locations for these early photographic projects were sites of public recreation such as shopping centres, car shows and strip clubs. [1]

Styles

Williams first became known in the 1990s for her photography work. Often her work during this time was produced using disposable cameras with shopping malls and retail displays as subjects, this has been linked to her work in retail during this time. [3] [4] Australian suburban life drew her attention during this time, including strip clubs and car shows. Later Williams staged more of her photographs. Stylistically, this early period in her career is distinctive for its lo-fi aesthetic with extensive use of blurring and distortion.

After moving to the United States in 2005, where she was unable to work without a Green card, Williams' began to construct elaborate costumes in which she would perform in front of the camera. [3]

Elaborate and immersive installation artworks including video and sculpture are the dominant mode of her most recent work, as seen in her exhibitions The Curtain Breathed Deeply (2014) and Handbag Hammer Meditation (2015).

References to modernism, especially Dada, occur frequently in her work. [4]

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

The Curtain Breathed Deeply, 2 February – 2 April 2015, Monash University Museum of Art

The Curtain Breathed Deeply, 26 June – 10 August 2014, Artspace Sydney

Handbag Hammer Meditation, 13 September – 19 October 2013, La Centrale galerie Powerhouse, Montreal

See also

Related Research Articles

Janet Laurence is an Australian artist, based in Sydney, who works in photography, sculpture, video and installation art. Her work is an expression of her concern about environment and ethics, her "ecological quest" as she produces art that allows the viewer to immerse themselves to strive for a deeper connection with the natural world. Her work has been included in major survey exhibitions, nationally and internationally and is regularly exhibited in Australia, Japan, Germany, Hong Kong and the UK. She has exhibited in galleries and outside in site-specific projects, often involving collaborations with architects, landscape architects and environmental scientists. Her work is held in all major Australian galleries as well as private collections in Australia and overseas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Jerrems</span> Australian photographer (1949–1980)

Carol Jerrems was an Australian photographer/filmmaker whose work emerged just as her medium was beginning to regain the acceptance as an art form that it had in the Pictorial era, and in which she newly synthesizes complicity performed, documentary and autobiographical image-making of the human subject, as exemplified in her Vale Street.

Alexia Sinclair is an Australian fine-art photographer. She studied Fine Arts in Sydney at The National Art School (1995–1998). She majored in traditional photography and her studies in painting, drawing, sculpture, and art history were all influential to her work. She completed a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Newcastle (2007).

Anne Collier is an American visual artist working with appropriated photographic images. Describing Collier's work in Frieze art magazine, writer Brian Dillon said, "Collier uncouples the machinery of appropriation so that her found images seem weightless, holding their obvious meaning in abeyance."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michal Rovner</span> Israeli contemporary artist

Michal Rovner, also known as Michal Rovner Hammer, is an Israeli contemporary artist, she is known for her video, photo, and cinema artwork. Rovner is internationally known with exhibitions at major museums, including the Louvre (2011) and the Whitney Museum of American Art (2002).

Susanne Helene Ford was an Australian feminist photographer who started her arts practice in the 1960s. She was the first Australian photographer to have a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1974 with Time Series. A book of her portraits of women 'A Sixtieth of a Second' was published in 1987. Her photographs and eclectic practice was displayed in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2014.

Destiny Deacon is an Indigenous Australian photographer and media artist. She has exhibited photographs and films across Australia and also internationally, focusing on politics and exposing the disparagement around Indigenous Australian cultures. She is credited with introducing the term "Blak" to refer to Indigenous Australians' contemporary art, culture and history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimsooja</span> South Korean conceptual artist

Kimsooja is a South Korean, multi-disciplinary conceptual artist based in New York, Paris, and Seoul. Her practice combines performance, film, photo, and site-specific installation using textile, light, and sound. Kimsooja's work investigates questions concerning the conditions of humanity, while engaging issues of aesthetics, culture, politics, and the environment. Her principle of ‘non-doing’ and ‘non-making,’ which follows a conceptual and structural investigation of performance through modes of mobility and immobility, inverts the notion of the artist as the predominant actor.

Natalie King is an Australian curator and writer working in Melbourne, Australia. She specializes in Australian and international programs for contemporary art and visual culture. This includes exhibitions, publications, workshops, lectures and cultural partnerships across contemporary art and indigenous culture.

Nell is an Australian artist working across performance, installation, video, painting and sculpture. In 2013, she won the University of Queensland Self-Portrait Award. In 2017, she was inducted into the Maitland City Hall of Fame in the category of The Arts.

Lindy Lee is an Australian painter and sculptor of Chinese heritage, whose work blends the cultures of Australia and her ancestral China and explores her Buddhist faith. She has exhibited widely, and is particularly known for her large works of public art, such as several iterations of The Life of Stars at various locations in China and on the forecourt of the Art Gallery of South Australia, and The Garden of Cloud and Stone in Sydney's Chinatown district.

Mikala Dwyer is an Australian artist born in 1959 in Sydney. She is a contemporary sculptor who was shortlisted with fellow artist Justene Williams to represent Australia at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marrnyula Mununggurr</span> Indigenous Australian painter

Marrnyula Mununggurr (1964) is an Aboriginal Australian painter of the Djapu clan of the Yolngu people, known for her use of natural ochres on bark and hollow logs, wood carvings, linoleum and screen print productions.

Robyn Stacey is an Australian photographer and new media artist known for her large striking still lifes.

Jacky Redgate is an Australian-based artist who works as a sculptor, an installation artist, and photographer. Her work has been recognised in major solo exhibitions surveying her work has been included in many group exhibitions in Australia, Japan and England. Her works are included in major Australian galleries including the National Gallery and key state galleries.

Rose Nolan is an Australian visual artist based in Melbourne with work held in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. She makes work in a variety of material forms: books, small sculptures, photographs, posters, paintings, banners, multiples and large-scale installations. A reduced palette of red and white is characteristic of her work. She uses raw and inexpensive materials, such as hessian and cardboard; with the work displaying an unmistakable sense of personal labour through its handmade aesthetic.

Gemma Smith is an Australian painter and sculptor, who is Sydney-based. Smith has been the recipient of numerous grants and been invited to join multiple exhibitions. She is known for her continuous experimentations with colour and abstraction. Her work is held in museum, corporate and private collections across Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charwei Tsai</span>

Charwei Tsai is a Taiwanese multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan.

Cherine Fahd is an Australian artist who works in photography and video performance. She is also the director of photography at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia and has published in academic journals, photographic and art publications, and in news and media. Her work has been shown in Australia, Israel, Greece and Japan. She has received numerous grants, and has been awarded residencies in India and in Sydney at the Carriageworks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Rothwell</span> British-Australian sculptor

Caroline Rothwell is an artist who works mainly within sculpture. She currently lives and works in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Rothwell's works have been exhibited, collected, commissioned and publicly installed widely across Australia and internationally.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Justene Williams | MCA Australia". www.mca.com.au. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  2. NSW, Museums & Galleries (5 June 2017). "SHOWCASE: Justene Williams". MGNSW. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Justene Williams | Artist Profile, Exhibitions & Artworks | Ocula". ocula.com. 7 March 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 Paton, Justin. "Justene Williams". Frieze. No. 140. ISSN   0962-0672 . Retrieved 7 March 2020.