Tarryn Gill

Influenced by her background in dance, Tarryn Gill's works have a highly theatrical approach. Her recent sculptural and photographic works are self-reflexive interrogations into the rituals we construct around life and death. She is interested combining personal memories and family histories with characters drawn from mythology and funerary art to activate the space between the earthly and other-worldly, where we can re-examine, rethink and reimagine our identity.

Through her solo and collaborative practices, Tarryn has exhibited works and undertaken residency projects across Australia, in Argentina, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In 2016 Tarryn’s sculptural works were included in the 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Magic Object, Samstag Museum with numerous works acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia, and she was commissioned by Artbank to produce a large-scale sculpture for their collection. Tarryn was also the 2016 winner of the $30,000 acquisitive Bankwest Art Prize for Sculpture in Perth, WA.

In 2015 she was a recipient of the David & Margery Edwards Trust, allowing her to spend three months in residence at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York City.

She has undertaken two recent residency projects curated by WA artist/curator Andrew Nicholls – the first in 2013 at the Freud Museum, London with a 2015 exhibition outcome: An Internal Difficulty: Australian Artists at the Freud Museum London, at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts as part of the Perth International Arts Festival. The second residency was in 2015 at the Brighton Pavilion and Museum, Brighton, UK – the resulting exhibition A Gentle Misinterpretation: Eight Australian artists & Chinoiserie is currently in development.

In collaboration with Pilar Mata Dupont, Tarryn participated in the 17th Biennale of Sydney and won the Basil Sellers Art Prize in 2010. They held a ten year retrospective of their work at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art in 2011. Notably, they exhibited work at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; the Art Gallery of Western Australia; the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. In partnership with Thea Costantino and Pilar as collective Hold Your Horses, Tarryn made work commissioned by the Akademie der Künste, Berlin for the exhibition Wagner 2013 Künstlerpositionen.

Tarryn is represented in Australian collections including Artbank, Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Bankwest, City of Perth, John Curtin University, Kerry Stokes Collection, Murdoch University, Queensland Art Gallery, Stadiums Queensland, Wesfarmer Arts and numerous private collections.

In 2017 Tarryn will be presenting new sculptural works with Sophie Gannon Gallery at Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, 7 - 10 September and she will be presenting a new solo exhibition at Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, 23 November - 13 December 2017. She is also currently undertaking an Australia Council funded development project to turn her sculptural works into wearables for performance.

In this video, Tarryn talks to NAVA about her current work, and what being an artists means for her.

Video Production: Dominic Kirkwood