Bio

Kay S Lawrence was awarded her PhD from Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia, in 2014. She sees art in all its forms as a means of communication, with the ability to connect people and places and to lead to greater cultural understanding. Her interdisciplinary art practice critically engages with anthropological, physical and spiritual aspects of her surroundings, and interweaves image, metaphor and abstraction.

Lawrence use textiles and digital imagery as discrete art objects and as components of installation practice. She is concerned with fractures and dislocations of time/space continuum and the fragile and ephemeral nature of both life and time. She is particularly interested in the interpretation of space and light in installation practice; how we experience spaces through the relationship of our bodies to architectural spaces and a concomitant inner, psychological experience of those spaces.

As Bachelard proposed, she believes that space is not merely a container of objects, but where human perception resides and our memories inform the interpretation of space.

In her current studio research, she is seeking a better understanding of how the haptic and visual qualities of textile materials and digital imagery contribute to understanding the complex relationship between time, space and the body within the context of installation practice. She believes that fibre functions symbolically and metaphorically for the fragility and ephemerality of life and time. Dislocations in the time/space continuum are suggested by fragments of digital imagery.

This recontextualising brings new and shifting layers of content, perception and meaning to her art practice. She searches for the transformative elements among the ordinary and technologically sophisticated materials and techniques, which will provide the embodied experiences she creates.

Short CV

Personal details

Kay S Lawrence (b.1954 Australia), lives and works in Brisbane, Australia

E: kaysheilalawrence@gmail.com     Web: www.kaylawrence.net

Education

2014 – Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Doctor of Philosophy

2009 – Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Bachelor of Fine Art First Class Honours

2007 – Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Bachelor of Fine Art

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2016-18 – “Material Matters”, touring 8 Queensland regional galleries

2016 – “Material Matters”, Logan Art Gallery, Queensland

2015 – “EveryDay Matters”, Foyer Gallery, ANU, Canberra

2014 – “Material Matters”, Webb Gallery, QCA, Brisbane

2013 – “My Body is Mostly Water”, Tai Project, Kunming, China

2012 – “Re/claimations”, Crane Arts Old School, Philadelphia, USA

2011 – “Re/formations”, POP Gallery, Woolloongabba, Queensland

2010 – “Microcystis”, Pickled Art Space, 798 Art District, Beijing, China

Selected Group Exhibitions and Collaborations

2018 – RONA 18 National Exhibition, Spring Hill Reservoirs, Spring Hill, Brisbane

2018 – “Odyssey: An Australian Photographer in China”, Changjiang Museum of  Contemporary Art, Chongqing, China

2018 – “Odyssey: An Australian Photographer in China”, Dali Old Town Museum, Yunnan, China

2017 – “Art Meets Science”, Ecosciences Precinct, Dutton Park, Queensland

2016 – “Plenty”, Powerhouse, Brisbane

2016 – “Art Meets Science”, Ecosciences Precinct, Dutton Park, Queensland

2015 – “Áfram með smjörið”, Listhús Gallery, Olafsfjordur, Iceland

2015 – “The Environmental Scream”, Murwillumbah Art Trail, NSW

2014 – “The GAS – Graduate Art Show”, Griffith University Art Gallery, Queensland

2014 – “Shifting Ground”, HOLD Artspace South Brisbane, Queensland

2014 – “Response to River”, The Shed, Hamilton, Queensland

2014 – “Meet van Gogh”, Kunming, China

2014 – “A Knife and a Torch”, HOLD Artspace, South Brisbane, Queensland

2013 – “Down the Rabbit Hole”, QCA, Southbank & USQ, Toowoomba, Queensland

2013 – 8th International Biennial of Textile Miniatures, Vilnius Lithuania

2013 – The Philadelphia Connection”, POP@AFG, South Brisbane

2012 – “Positive Feedback Loop”, Browning Street Studios, West End

2012 – “The Necessary Transition”, Ship Inn, South Bank, Brisbane

2012 – “Three Tonnes”, Aimoto, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

2012 – “Ton Ton / Knock Knock”, (Tsukiyo to Syonen) Gallery, Osaka, Japan

2012 – “The Word Conterminous”, Jugglers Art Space, Fortitude Valley

2011 – “Teerk Roo Ra”, POP Gallery, Woolloongabba

2011 – “Vanish/Survive”,7th International Biennial of Textile Miniatures, Vilnius

2009 – “Hiromi Hotel”, Fresh Cut 2009, IMA, Brisbane, Queensland

Awards and Prizes

2013 – “Greening the beige”, Eco-residency, Contemporary Yunnan, Kunming, China

2011-2014 – Griffith University Postgraduate Research Scholarship

2008 – Churchie national emerging art exhibition finalist

Artist Residencies

2016-17 – RONA 16

2016 – Ecosciences Precinct, Dutton Park, Queensland

2015 – Listhus Art Space, Ólafsfjörður, Iceland

2015 – ANU School of Art, Textiles Workshop, Canberra

2013 – 943 Contemporary Yunnan, Kunming, China

2012 – SandAvinci School of Art & Design, Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan

2012 – QCA Crane Arts, Philadelphia, USA

2010 – Peel Island, Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia

2010 – Red Gate Residency, Beijing, China

2008 – Geidai University, Tokyo, Japan 

Grants

2016 – Arts Queensland, “Playing Queensland Fund” grant

2014 – Arts Queensland, NAVA Future Forward conference bursary

Collections

Private collections, Japan, China, Singapore and Australia

Selected Bibliography

2016 – “Dancing with Shadows”, Louise Martin-Chew, p. 1

2016 – “Interwoven: Kay S Lawrence’s ‘Material Matters’”, Lisa Bryan-Brown, p.9

2015 – “Material Matters”, Textile Fibre Forum, Issue No. 118, June 2015, p. 45

2014 – “Soft Bodies”, Madeleine Stack, p.6

2013 – “Refueling, a Better Life Awaits You”, November 2015, p. 54

2013 – “Moving Over Water”, Kathryn Sawyer

2013 – “Thoughts – that is… “, 8th International Biennial of Textile Miniatures,

2013 – “Down the Rabbit Hole”, QCA, Griffith University, p. 46

2013 – “The Philadelphia Connection”, QCA, Griffith University, pp. 18-21

2011 – “Vanish/Survive”, 7th International Biennial of Textile Miniatures

2011 – “Recognising Teerk Roo Ra: The Teerk Roo Ra Artists’ Residencies

2011” – Pat Hoffie, QCA, Griffith University, 2011, p.

2008 – ‘The Mother Project’, Holly Arden, “Eyeline contemporary visual arts”, Volume 66,p. 69.

Selected Texts

2015 – “The Body as Drawing Instrument in Feminist Art Practice”, Drawing International Brisbane 2015 Symposium Proceedings online

2014 – Material Matters: Contemporary Women’s Work, PhD Thesis

2011 – Textiles: some visible and invisible connections in contemporary visual art installation practice’, “Oculus Postgraduate Journal for Visual Arts Research”, Issue No. 3, February 2011

Research Appointments/Conference Papers

2015-current – Adjunct research fellow Griffith Centre for Creative Arts Research, GU

2015 – Drawing International Brisbane, “The Body as Drawing Instrument in Feminist Practice”

2013 – Creativity and Innovation through Cross Fertilisation, GU, “The Body Involved”

2012 – Positive Feedback Loop: creative collaboration, GU, ‘‘Tenuous Couplings”

2012 – QCA Postgrad conference, GU, “Tenuous Couplings: a critical discussion”

2011 – Cultural Research Symposium, GU, “Entangled Limbs: Echoic Connections”

2010 – “Textiles: some visible and invisible connections”, Oculus Visual Arts Postgraduate conference, Christchurch, NZ