Angela Brennan is an Australian painter. Brennan was born in Ballarat in 1960. She went on to complete a Fine Arts degree, specialising in painting at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1982, and a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in philosophy at the University of Melbourne in 1992. Best known for her high-keyed abstractions, Brennan displays a mastery of colour and spontaneity in her work that offers the viewer a range of ideas and emotions that evoke a subjective response. She continues to add to her repertoire of painting styles, including abstracts, text paintings, portraits, interiors and landscapes, and more recently has expanded her practice to include ceramics and sculptural installations. These varied modes of art-making allow Brennan to encounter philosophical and personal subject matter.
Exhibitions
Angela Brennan has exhibited extensively since the late 1980s, holding over 40 solo shows and participating in over 150 group exhibitions. She is represented by Niagara Galleries in Melbourne, Roslyn Oxley9 in Sydney, and Goddard de Fiddes in Perth. In 2006 the Monash University Museum of Art held a major survey exhibition of her work, titled Angela Brennan: every morning I wake up on the wrong side of capitalism. Other prominent shows have included Shut Up and Paint, 2016, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Climarte Poster Project, 2016 for – Arts for a Safe Climate, Melbourne; MrPresident…., Parkside Avenue, Brooklyn, New York; , 2013, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; On A Round Ball, 2013, China Art Projects, Hong Kong; Paintings and Drawings, 2005, The Gallery on Cork Street, London; and On the Brink: Abstraction of the 90s, 2000, , Melbourne. She has also participated in art fairs within Australia and overseas, such as the from 2004 to 2012, the from 2010 to 2012, the in 2009, and the in 2004.
Collections
Brennan's work appears extensively in public and private collections across Australia as well as overseas. She is featured in major state galleries, such as the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia and , as well as numerous private, corporate and university collections throughout Australia. Internationally her work features in the Mont Blanc Art Collection in Switzerland and World Bank in New York, as well as in private collections in the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Israel, Japan and Singapore.
Awards
Brennan has been the recipient of numerous awards, grants and residencies throughout her career. They have included the Australia Council Studio, Milan in 2008, Melbourne Savage Club prize in 2007, studio residency at Cité internationale des arts, Paris in 2006 and 1998, and Blundstone Contemporary Art Award in 1995. She has also been selected for a number of prolific art prize events, including the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize in 2012, the Flinders University Art Museum; the in 2011, and The Dobell Drawing Prize in 2002.
