The Art of Fiona Hall

Fiona Hall is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists. Hall’s work — whether photographs and Polaroids, intricately carved sardine tins and vibrant beaded sculptures, or precise botanical illustrations on bank notes — speaks of the artist’s insatiable curiosity about the world around her. While some works are whimsical, and others ironic or savagely critical, the wit, passion and knowledge Hall brings to her work consistently beguiles and fascinates audiences.

Focusing on works from 1988 to early 2005, this exhibition is the first survey of Fiona Hall’s work to be staged by an Australian gallery in more than a decade. It includes two new major works, Understorey and Tender, which have never before been exhibited. A major monograph on the artist is available from the Gallery Store.

Fiona Hall was born in 1953 in Sydney, and has lived and worked in Adelaide since 1983. Following initial painting studies in Sydney, from 1977 to 1978, Hall worked in London as an assistant to British photographer Fay Godwin.

From London, Hall moved to the USA where she completed a Master of Fine Arts (Photography) at the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester. She has undertaken many residencies in Australia, including at Brisbane’s Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens in 1998.

Hall’s ongoing interest in the histories and botanical classifications of plants has continued through annual residencies at a garden estate in Sri Lanka since 1999. In 1997 Hall was the recipient of the inaugural Contempora 5 art award, and in 1999 the Clemenger Art Award. She has exhibited widely, including in the Queensland Art Gallery’s ‘Second Asia–Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ in 1996, and is represented in every major public collection in Australia.

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The Art of Fiona Hall