Design and Art Australia Online

Anna Glynn draws on a diversified practice that incorporates painting, drawing, film making, moving image, animation, sculpture, installation, photography, writing, music, sound and live performance. She strives to create visually poetic work investigating the connection between humans and nature, land and place, the physical and the ephemeral. An example of this from her Bundanon Shoalhaven Stories series is her painting The Brave Hunter, which was selected as an iconic Australian image to feature on the cover of A Concise History of Australia (2009) by Stuart Macintyre.

Her current exhibition Promiscuous Provenance tours nationally from 2018 – 2021. The exhibition leads back in time to an intersection of worlds by the re-interpretation of images of the Australian colonial painters through a naive playful engagement. The artworks express a nostalgia for an antipodean wonderland before the imprint of colonization was stamped over the landscape and its inhabitants. The exhibition includes, paintings, drawings, installation with 3D printing, floor cloth, panorama and sound work.

Through international interdisciplinary collaborations of art and science, she explores landscape and nature to create site-responsive artworks, examining the amplified response that a physical engagement with the natural environment has the power to evoke. In recent years she has held Artist in Residence positions with: Sitka Center for Art & Ecology – USA, ARNA, Avian Kingdom – Sweden, Interface Inagh – Ireland, Kunstnarhuset Messen – Norway, National Parks Arts Foundation & Dry Tortugas National Park – USA, Caetani Culture Centre & Allan Brooks Nature Centre – Canada, Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University – Hong Kong, Commune of Antibes Juan-Les-Pins – France. In 2018 She has been commissioned to collaborate on ‘Art, Ecology & Science Project’ in USA, Sweden & Australia.

In 2018 she has been selected for BOAA, Biennale Of Australian Art. In 2017 her work was acquired for the Parliament House Art Collection Australia, she was a finalist in the KAAF and Kilgour Prizes and was a finalist in the Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize. In 2016 she was: Winner Noosa Art Award, finalist in the Heysen Prize for Landscape, finalist in the Mandorla Art Award. In 2015 she was: selected for the Byron Bay International Film Festival, finalist in the Whyalla Art Prize, recipient of the Kedumba Drawing Award with her work selected for acquisition to the Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings. In 2013 she was a finalist in the 'Australian Art in Asia Awards’ recognising her ongoing commitment to international collaboration. She won the Animation section at the 2010 International Film Festival, Ireland and won the 2009 Australian Historic Houses Trust, Meroogal Women’s Art Prize. Earlier finalist selections include: 1996 , 1997 Outback Art Prize at Broken Hill City Art Gallery, 1997 Conrad Jupiter’s Art Prize at Gold Coast City Gallery. In 1997 she was awarded a Broken Hill City Art Gallery artist-in-residence. In 1998 Glynn received an International Women’s Day Award for her contribution to 'Women, Art & the Community’.

Glynn began her arts practice in the mid 1980s in Melbourne, before moving to Sydney and then to the Shoalhaven in 1989. In 1993 she worked for 12 months with Australian artist Arthur Boyd, an experience that dramatically changed her attitude towards art and prompted the development of a new love for the landscape genre. At the invitation of Boyd, Anna had the first public exhibition at Riversdale, part of the Bundanon Trust.

Glynn’s earlier works were across a number of media including silk, sculpture and textiles. In 1988 and 1990 her work was selected for the Tamworth National Fibre Exhibition and purchased for the collection. In 1991 her work was shown at the Kyoto Museum in Japan.

In 1995 Glynn spent the year working with rural communities, collecting stories that related to the droving routes of her Irish great grandfather. This 'Landscapes and Lives’ series of paintings toured in 1997 to the Australian Museum, Sydney; Dubbo Regional Gallery; Broken Hill City Art Gallery and the Mildura Arts Centre.

Glynn was awarded the 2000 Shoalhaven Arts Board Millennium Sculpture commission creating Shoalhaven Stories, three glazed ceramic obelisks. Also in 2000 Glynn was artist-in-residence at Bundanon, NSW.
Her Strange Memories project began in 2002 when Glynn was the Parks Victoria Longridge artist-in-residence, at a spot located adjacent to her childhood family property on the Yarra River at Warrandyte. She exhibited the work at Montsalvat in Eltham and was invited to create a book based on these works. In 2006 Strange Memories, the book of her paintings and writing, was published. Glynn also created a 65-minute artist’s film of the project as well as recording a CD of her original music and live theatre performances based on the material. In 2006 Strange Memories was selected for the Merrigong Theatre Development Program at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre in Wollongong.

From 2006 Glynn travelled regularly to China for exhibitions, residencies and projects focusing on cultural exchange and collaborations. In 2008 she began to develop new works that fuse Chinese traditional ink painting techniques with a Western aesthetic to create a new contemporary style. During her time in China she developed this innovative genre that utilises the natural character of the Chinese materials. The Australian Trade Commission invited Glynn to be part of the first Australian Pavilion at the Shanghai Art Fair in 2006 and 2007, which then led to various exhibition invitations from curators in China. Her focus from 2006 was on international exhibitions in the United States, Canada, Korea and, primarily, China, where she developed ongoing artistic relationships with a number of Chinese curators and artists. In 2007 Glynn represented Australia in an international exhibition, 'Being’ at the Zhu QiZhan Art Museum in Shanghai.

Glynn’s project Parallel Dreams was based on her collaboration with contemporary Chinese artist Wu GuoWei. In 2008 Glynn was awarded: an Australia China Council Residency to travel to Liaoning Province and another at Laughing Waters, Nillumbik, Parks Victoria, where she spent time with GuoWei. The 'Parallel Dreams’ exhibition was shown in Australia in 2010 and travelled to Peking University, Centennial Hall, Beijing in 2011.
In 2012 her solo exhibition, 'Hidden Worlds’, was held at Harmony Space Art Gallery, Beijing, China and was included as part of the official celebration of the 40th anniversary of Australia-China diplomatic relations.

A retrospective of her work, ‘Shoalhaven Stories’, was held in 2012 at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery. Glynn’s Shoalhaven Stories project continued in 2012 and 2013 when she was commissioned by the Shoalhaven City Council through a Your Community Heritage Program Grant from the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities to collect and express this rich historical collection.

In 2013 she was a finalist in the Australian Art in Asia Awards for her 'Hidden Worlds’ exhibition in Beijing. This same year she was awarded an artist-in-residence in the Department of Visual Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, where she undertook research and lecturing, developed new works and mounted an exhibition at the University. She was also invited to have a solo exhibition at Tsi Ku Chai Gallery, Hong Kong, and was the first foreign artist to be invited to exhibit at this gallery known for its close work with the precious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation.

Writers:

Glynn, Anna

Date written:

2008

Last updated:

2018