Anna Kristensen
View stockroom & exhibitionsShuffling scientific ephemera with New Age iconography, Anna Kristensen’s recent work looks at the crossing of two kinds of knowledge: science and mysticism. Recurring motifs – the journey, tunnels, vortexes, and caves – also represent a crossing, a physical passage between one place and another. Her practice has been exploring the potential of these ‘in-between’ spaces to author new fictions, as interstices for imagination and transformation.
Anna Kristensen achieved her Master of Fine Arts, Painting, from CoFA at University of New South Wales in 2008. In 2007 she was a finalist in both the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship and the Qantas Spirit of Youth Award. In 2009 Kristensen undertook a residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris and was Artist in Residence at the Sylvia Freedman Studio as part of the Bundanon Trust. Kristensen has had solo exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne and Berlin and is in the collection of the Wollongong City Gallery as well as private collections in Australia, Berlin and Los Angeles. In 2010 Anna Kristensen completed a wall drawing for the Shepparton Regional Gallery, exhibited her work in Gallery 9′s first stand at the Melbourne Art Fair and was selected for the RBS Emerging Artist Award.
The centrepiece of Anna Kristensen’s solo exhibition at Gallery 9 in March 2011 was an 11 metre long, 2.6 metre tall panoramic painting of the Jenolan Cave’s Indian Chamber. Painted on the interior of a circular structure the viewer enters the 360 degree painting via a door in one of the panels of the work. This finely crafted and exquisitely painted installation titled Indian Chamber is accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by esteemed artist Gary Carsley. Indian Chamber travelled to Shepparton Art Gallery in May and will be on show at Artspace in September for the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship 2011. In November, the work will be shown at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery.
www.annakristensen.com.au