JANET LAURENCE is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, exhibiting nationally

and internationally. Bridging ethical and environmental concerns, Laurence’s art considers the

inseparability of all living things and represents, in her words, “an ecological quest”. Reflecting

on the mutability of nature, science, memory and loss, Laurence creates immersive environments

offering us a deeply experiential and cultural relationship to the environment.

For more than 35 years, Janet Laurence’s practice has been driven by the fragility of the natural

environment. Across painting, photography, sculpture, video and installation, she explores the

deep interconnection of life forms and ecologies to produce work driven by themes of alchemical

transformation, history and perception that is distinctive, complex and beautiful. 

Within the recognized threat to the life world she explores what it might mean to heal, albeit

metaphorically, the natural environment, fusing this with a sense of communal loss and search

for connection with powerful life forces.

Janet Laurence is well known for her public artworks and site-specific installations that extend

from the museum and gallery into the urban and landscape domain. Recent significant projects

and commissions include: a commission with The Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne

(2017); an installation for The Pleasure of Love, October Salon, Belgrade (2016); Deep

Breathing: Resuscitation for the Reef, for the Paris Climate Change Conference (2015) and the

Paris International Contemporary Art Fair (2015), followed up by the installation Deep

Breathing at the Australian Museum, Sydney (2016); Tarkine for a World in Need of Wilderness,

Macquarie Bank Foyer, London (2011); In Your Verdant View, Hyde Park Building, Sydney

(2010); Waterveil, CH2 Building for Melbourne City Council; Memory of Lived Spaces, Changi

T3 Airport Terminal, Singapore; Elixir, permanent installation for Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial,

Japan (all 2006); The Australian War Memorial (in collaboration with TZG Architects), Hyde

Park, London (2003); In the Shadow, Sydney 2000 Olympic Park, Homebush Bay (2000);

Veil of trees, Sydney Sculpture Walk (with Jisuk Han); 49 Veils, award-winning windows for the

Central Synagogue, Sydney (with Jisuk Han, 1999); The Edge of the Trees (with Fiona Foley),

Museum of Sydney (1994); and The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Australian War Memorial,

Canberra (with TZG Architects, 1993).

Despite a demanding schedule of public artworks and commissioned projects, Janet Laurence

also exhibits widely in major art institutions and museums, including Australia, Japan, Germany,

Hong Kong and the UK. Exhibitions include: The Entangled Garden of Plant Memory, Yu Hsiu

Museum, Taiwan (2020); the major survey exhibition Janet Laurence: After Nature curated by

Rachel Kent, MCA, Sydney (2019); Inside the Flower, IGA Berlin, Germany (2017); Force of

Nature II, curated by James Putnam, The Art Pavilion, London (2017); the 13th Cuenca

Biennial, Ecuador (2016); Deep Breathing: Resuscitation for the Reef, Muséum National

D’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, (2015); After Eden, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney

(2012) and Tarrawarra Museum of Art (2013); 17th Biennale of Sydney (2010); In The Balance:

Art for a Changing World, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2010); Clemenger Award,

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2009); and Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan (2003,

2006). She was also included in the 9th Biennale of Sydney (1992) and Australian Perspecta

(1985, 1991, and 1997).

Janet 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, on the VAB Board of the Australia

Council, and is currently a visiting fellow of the 2016/2017 Hanse-WissenschaftKolleg (HWK)

foundation fellowship.

Key collections include: NGA, Canberra; AGNSW, Sydney; NGV, Melbourne; MCA, Sydney;

QAG, Brisbane; AGSA, Adelaide; Artbank Australia; Macquarie Bank Collection; Kunstwerk

Summlung Klein, Germany; as well as numerous university, corporate and private collections

nationally and internationally.

Janet Laurence
Born in Australia
Lives and works in Sydney

Education
(education not listed in document)

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 – Tears of Dust, Museum of Australian Photography, Melbourne
2023 – Once Were Forests, Arc One Gallery, Melbourne
2020 – Entangled Garden for Plant Memory, Yu-hsui Museum, Taiwan
2019 – The Palm at the End of the Mind, Johnston House, Melbourne
2019 – After Nature, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
2017 – Matter of the Masters, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2016 – Naturestruck, Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney
2015 – Deep Breathing: Resuscitation for the Reef, Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris
2014 – Plants Eye View, Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney
2012 – After Eden, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney
2011 – Memory of Nature, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2009 – Things that Disappear, Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide
2007 – Greenhouse, bildkultur galerie, Stuttgart, Germany
2005 – Janet Laurence: A Survey Exhibition, ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra
2000 – Muses, Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne
1995 – pH Series, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
1991 – Rare, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne
1989 – Blindspot, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, University of New South Wales, Sydney
1985 – Janet Laurence, Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney

Selected Curated Exhibitions
2024 – A Land for the Living, Bathurst Gallery of Art, Australia
2023 – Transpieces Design, Venice Biennale of Architecture, Italy
2022 – Antarctic Futures, University of Wollongong Gallery, Australia
2021 – Know My Name, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
2020 – Courants Verts, EDF Foundation, Paris
2017 – Transplant, Momentum Gallery, Berlin
2016 – 13th Cuenca Biennial, Ecuador
2015 – Till It’s Gone, Istanbul Modern, Turkey
2014 – What Marcel Duchamp Taught Me, FAS Contemporary, London
2013 – Animate/Inanimate, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville
2011 – Wattle: Australian Contemporary Art, Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong
2010 – In the Balance: Art for a Changing World, MCA, Sydney
2009 – 2009 Clemenger Contemporary Art Award, NGV Australia
2008 – Handle With Care, Adelaide Biennial, Art Gallery of South Australia
1997 – Australian Perspecta: Between Art and Nature, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1992 – 9th Biennale of Sydney: The Boundary Rider, Bond Stores, Sydney
1985 – Australian Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Public Commissions and Siteworks
2023 – Spells for Weather, Bundanon Art Gallery, Australia
2022 – The Breath in Glass, Sydney, with Candelapas Associates Architects
2017 – Inside the Flower, IGA Berlin, Germany
2015 – GASP: Parliament, Hobart, Tasmania
2012 – The Healing Wild, LaTrobe University, Bendigo
2011 – Tarkine (For a World in Need of Wilderness), Macquarie Bank, London
2007 – Memory of Lived Spaces, Changi T3 Airport, Singapore
2004 – Verdant Veil, Changi Airport, Singapore
2003 – The Breath We Share, Bendigo Art Gallery
1995 – Edge of the Trees, Museum of Sydney, collaboration with Fiona Foley
1993 – Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Australian War Memorial, Canberra

Selected Awards and Grants
2023 – Art and Science Finalist, Falling Walls, Germany
2022 – Bowness Photography Prize Finalist
2020 – Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship
2017 – HWK Residency, Delmenhorst, Germany
2006 – Churchill Fellowship
1997 – Rockefeller Foundation Residency, Bellagio, Italy
1995 – Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design (Edge of the Trees)

Selected Collections
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Chartwell Collection, Auckland, NZ
Museum Kunstwerk, Eberdingen, Germany
World Bank Collection, Washington, DC
Soho House, United Kingdom and Amsterdam
Numerous university, regional, corporate, and private collections worldwide