Multimedia Australian artist, Anna Glynn engages in painting, drawing, sculpture, writing, music, sound, installation and theatre. Her art investigates the connection to the land and the memories and stories that resonate within a place. An example of this work from her Bundanon Shoalhaven Stories series is her painting The Brave Hunter, which was selected as an iconic Australian image to feature on the front cover of A Concise History of Australia (2009) by Stuart Macintyre.
Glynn began her arts practice in the mid 1980s in Melbourne, before moving to Sydney and then to the Shoalhaven region 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 oil painting and printmaking. An exhibition of her paintings was held at Riversdale, part of the Bundanon Trust, at the invitation of Boyd.
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 where it was collected by the gallery and formed part of a touring exhibition. In 1991 her work formed part of an international exhibition to the Kyoto Museum in Japan.
In 1995 Glynn spent the year working with rural and isolated communities, collecting stories that related to the droving routes of her Irish great grandfather. The series of paintings that resulted from this research became a touring exhibition in 1997 called 'Landscapes and Lives’ which travelled to The Australian Museum, Sydney; Dubbo Regional Gallery; Broken Hill City Art Gallery and the Mildura Arts Centre.
She was selected for the 1996 and 1997 Outback Art Prize at Broken Hill City Art Gallery and her work was also selected for the 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’. The following year she was invited to create a work for the charity Jeans for Genes and painted images from Barbara Blackman’s Certain Chairs.
Glynn was awarded the 2000 Shoalhaven Arts Board Millennium Sculpture commission creating Shoalhaven Stories, three glazed ceramic obelisks. Her Shoalhaven Stories series began in the 1990s and reflects her lifelong interest in narrative works and in expressing the essence of place and how history and truth are created and interpreted. As part of the commission Glynn spent extensive time on research and worked with the local community to gather local stories. It was also in 2000 that 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. Later that year she exhibited the work at Montsalvat in Eltham, which included her original music. Glynn was then invited by the Melbourne publisher JoJo Publishing to create a book based on these works and 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.
Since 2006 Glynn has travelled to China every year for exhibitions, residencies and projects focusing on cultural exchange and collaborations within Asia. 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 has developed ongoing artistic relationships with a number of Chinese curators and artists.
In 2007 Glynn represented Australia in an international art exhibition titled 'Being’ at the Zhu QiZhan Art Museum in Shanghai. The exhibition theme looked at the importance of the environment. She also presented a Strange Memories multi-media work collaborating with a local performer where narration was alternated in English and Mandarin.
Glynn’s project Parallel Dreams was based on her collaboration with contemporary Chinese artist Wu GuoWei, with whom she has continued to collaborate to extend the unique relationship between their art across their different cultures. In 2008 Glynn was awarded two artist residencies: 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, Huantie Art City, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China. The exhibition was included as part of the official celebration of the 40th anniversary of Australia-China diplomatic relations. This year she also spent time developing new practical skills and undertaking research at the IARB Where Where Curatorial Collective in Beijing, China. Her area of study was new interpretations using traditional Chinese ink and wash painting techniques and exploring innovative approaches with these materials especially through video and sound.
A major retrospective of her work, ‘Shoalhaven Stories’, was held in 2012 at the Main Gallery Shoalhaven City Arts Centre. 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
Anna Glynn
duggim
- Date written:
- 2008
- Last updated:
- 2013
