About
Penny Burnett (b.1965) is an Australian artist who now lives and works in Dodges Ferry, lutruwita/Tasmania. Her paintings focus on our relationship with space and nature. She uses the motif of the garden to expose tensions between nature and culture, authority and agency, and to bring the viewer’s attention to the act of looking.
Formally trained in the atelier method at the National Art School in Sydney, Burnett is versed in the painterly gestural language of rendering space. In her current practice she brings her skills into a speculative terrain to question how screen-based media have shifted both the rendering and perception of pictorial space. Using a digital layering approach, Burnett seeks to disrupt spatial relationships within her compositions. Her paintings conflate painterly codes to create discordances that both repel and intrigue.
Burnett’s work has been exhibited across the east coast of Australia, Malaysia and Korea: ‘knit one, purl one, knit one…’ at the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor (2009); ‘Off the Wall’ Art in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney (2008); ‘NewMakings’ at the Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart and the Malacca Art Gallery in Malaysia (2015) and most recently in South Korea at Artspace IAa, Jeju (2019) and in a ‘ Art Virus 20’ (2020) exhibiting at several locations thought out Korea.
C.V
Penelope (Penny) Burnett
Born: 1965, Orange, NSW Australia
Qualifications
2018: Doctorate of Philosophy, School of Creative Arts, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania
2013: Bachelor of Fine Art (Hons), School of Creative Arts University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania
2011: Graduate Diploma of Fine Art and Design (Painting), University of Tasmania
2003: Bachelor of Fine Art, National Art School, Sydney New South Wales
1999: Certificate in Fine Arts, Northern Beaches Institute TAFE, New South Wales
Solo Exhibitions
2024: Charting Colour in the Gray Zone, 11 January - 4 February 24, Schoolhouse Gallery, Rosny Farm Arts Centre
2021: Freedom in Restraint, 13 May – 3 June 21, Poimena Art Gallery, Mowbray Tasmania
2020: Wild – Outside and Within, 5 Oct 19 – 26 Jan 20, Cradle Mountain Wilderness Gallery, Cradle Mountain, Tasmania
2018: The Evolving Garden, 7 March – 1 April, Despard Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania
2017: Agency in Garden Imagery: A Painterly Investigation into Thresholds of Otherness, 2 –30 Oct, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart
2017: Not So Conservatorium, 8 April – 20 April, The Ramp Gallery, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania
2015: Dark Pandani, 12 June – 12 August 2015, Henry Jones Art Hotel, Hobart, Tasmania
2011: You can have your plate and eat it too, Stable Gallery, Moonah, Hobart, Tasmania
2009: You can make a difference, Ashmores, Richmond, Tasmania
2008: Beanies tell lies, Horus & Deloris Contemporary Art Space, Pyrmont, Sydney New South Wales
Awards, Grants and Residencies
2022: RANT art exhibition opportunity
2022: Arts Tasmania, Glover Country Residency
2022: Arts Tasmania Educational Residencies - DOM College, Devonport TAS.
2021: Creative Support Small Grants Fund - Curatorial Practice Mentorship
2021: Artist in Residence, Poimena Art Gallery - Launceston Church Grammar School
2020: 47th Muswellbrook Annual Art Prize, People’s Choice Winner (non-acquisitive)
2019: Cradle Mountain Wilderness Gallery Residency Program, Cradle Mountain, Tasmania
2018: Bay of Fires Art Prize Winner (acquisitive)
2018: Artspace IAa, Jeju Island, South Korea: Arts TAS, the Dep of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Jeju Foundation for Arts and Culture.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023: The Glover Prize 20th Anniversary, , Finalist, Falls Park Pavilion, Evandale, Tasmania
2022: Paint 2022: Relationships and Limitations, Poimena, Launceston and RANT, Devonport.
2021: Calleen Art Award, Finalist, Cowra Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2021: Ravenswood Australian Woman’s Art Prize, Finalist (Emerging), Ravenswood School for Girls, Sydney
2021: Sumer Show 20/21 Despard Gallery, Hobart
2020: 47th Muswellbrook Art prize, Muswellbrook, NSW
2020: Art Virus 20, Gallery Giants Garden, Jeju, South Korea
2020: Sumer Show 19/20, Despard Gallery, Hobart.
2019: Artspace IAa Resident Lasi, JFAC, Jeju, South Korea
2019: Australian Women Artists, MAC, Moonah, TAS
2019: Botanica, Despard Gallery, Hobart,TAS
2018: Constant Craving, Eramboo, Terry Hills, NSW
2018: Bay of Fires Art Prize, St Helens TAS
2017: Sumer Show 17/18 - Despard Gallery, Hobart, TAS
2016: New Makings, UPSI Gallery, Malaysia
2015: New Makings Plimsoll Gallery, UTAS, Hobart.
2015 Long Weekend, Trocadero Art Space, Melbourne VIC
2015: Power, Paint and the Garden, academic paper at IAFOR, Brighton, United Kingdom
2014: Unnatural Futures, Plimsoll Gallery, UTAS, Hobart, TAS
2012: Jeanne’s Alchemists, Sheffer Gallery, Darlington, NSW
2011: Unnatural, Plimsoll Gallery, UTAS, Hobart.
2010: Succulence –Tasmania Regional Arts Material Girl Touring Exhibition, Tasmania
2009: Knit one, purl one, knit one… Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW.
2008: Off the Wall - Art Brisbane & Melbourne
2007: The Churchie, Anglican Church Grammar, Brisbane
2007: Off the Wall - Art Sydney 07, Sydney, NSW
2007: Local Connections, Living Artist Week, Sorrel.
2007: Material Girl, Moonah Arts Centre, Tasmania
2006: The Glover Prize, Evandale, Tasmania
Residencies:
2022: Glover Country Residency, Deddington, Arts Tasmania
2022: Arts Tasmania Educational Residency at DOM College Devonport
2021: Poimena Art Gallery - Launceston Church Grammar School, Artist in Residence 2021
2019: Cradle Mountain Wilderness Gallery Residency Program, Cradle Mountain, Tasmania
2018: Artspace IAa, Jeju Island, South Korea: Arts Tasmania, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Jeju Foundation for Arts and Culture.
Collections:
Artbank
St. Helens Private Hospital, Hobart, Tasmania
The Artemisia Collection, Hobart, Tasmania
Private collections in Switzerland, Hong Kong, Nairobi and New Zealand
Bay of Fires Winner Collection, St Helens, Tasmania
Artspace IAa, Jeju Island, South Korea
Publications:
IAa Sillok II- International Exchange Program 2018 catalogue Art Space IAa, Jeju Island, South Korea.
Andrew Harper, Sci-Fi Insights, TasWeekend, The Mercury, March 31-April 1, 2018 p.19
Dr Megan Keating, Unnatural – place and being: connections under stress, Catalogue essay for Unnatural,Plimsoll Gallery, School of Creative Arts, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania
Diana Robson, knit one, purl one, knit one - Catalogue essay and publication for Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, New South Wales
Airlie Ward, Artist Spotlight, 7.30 Report Tasmania, ABC TV aired 02/09/2011