Janet Laurence


Janet Laurence is an Australian artist, based in Sydney, who works in mixed media and installation. Her work has been included in major survey exhibitions, nationally and internationally and is regularly exhibited in Sydney, Melbourne and Japan.
Laurence's work explores a relationship to the natural world, often from an architectural context. She has exhibited in galleries and outside in site-specific projects, often involving collaborations with architects, landscape architects and environmental scientists.

Biography

Laurence is an environmental artist. Over more than 35 years she has made public artworks and site-specific installations. A recent project, Deep Breathing: Resuscitation for the Reef for both the Paris Climate Change Conference, presented one of Australia's greatest natural wonders to an international audience gathered in Paris for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in November 2015. Laurence's artwork includes photos, videos and natural material like bleached corals and shells. It also features fish and turtle specimens borrowed from the Australian Museum and Paris's Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, where it was displayed.
Laurence lives and works in Sydney. A recipient of both a Rockefeller and Churchill Fellowship, she was a Trustee of the Art Gallery of NSW from 1995 to 2005, on the VAB Board of the Australia Council and is currently a Visiting Fellow at COFA NSW University. She is also a council member of Voiceless, the animal protection institute.
Laurence was the subject of John Beard's winning entry for the 2007 Archibald Prize. The portrait features Laurence in a moment of reflection, captured in black and white, but textured with light and shade. The pair are close friends and the collaboration lends itself to a sense of double portraiture with the artist-as-subject.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions

Key collections in which Laurence's work is held include: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, NGA, Canberra; AGNSW, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; QAG, Brisbane; AGSA, Adelaide; Artbank Australia Macquarie Bank Collection, Kunstwerk Summlung Klein, Germany.