Hanna Kay
Born in Tel-Aviv, Israel, Hanna Kay studied art in her hometown and later, Vienna Austria. Once in Australia, she received a BA in Semiotics and Philosophy at the University of Sydney. She has practised as an artist in Tel-Aviv and New York, followed by a decade in Sydney before moving to the Upper Hunter Valley in 2000.
Kay has exhibited in Israel, Europe and the U.S.A and, since 1990, has regularly presented solo exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and regional art galleries as well as participated in a range of group exhibitions. A major exhibition Undertow, commissioned by the Maitland Regional Art Gallery, inspired by the old Jewish cemetery in Maitland, toured Regional Art Galleries and Museums in Victoria, NSW and Queensland from 2009 to 2012. In 2007, Palgrave Macmillan published her illustrated journal Notes from the Shed. Her work has been critically discussed and reviewed in a range of publications including The New York Times, Art in America, The Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times, New Visions, New Perspectives: Voices of Contemporary Australian Women Artists, (1996) and Terminal Magazine 21st Art, Autumn 2006, New York, Tel Aviv.
Kay is currently planning an artist residency in China as well as an upcoming exhibition in Muswellbrook Regional Art Gallery in 2015.
My art is a result of endless conversations with myself; an attempt to come to terms with our existence in the natural environment. Since my first encounter with the Australian outback, when I was overpowered by both the severity and the beauty of the landscape, I have attempted to convey the effect these places have had on me; to express the landscape’s lure, its strength, paradoxes and vulnerability. Powered by the colours, shapes and light of the landscape, I create new spaces in which to explore and express my perception of the values and possibilities of life as a whole.
Hanna Kay, 2012
Full CV
Art education: Tel - Aviv, Israel and Vienna Austria
BA Semiotics and Philosophy, University of Sydney, Australia.
selected solo exhibitions:
2012 Undertow - Hervey Bay Regional Art Gallery, QLD
2011 Undertow - Orange Regional Art Gallery, Orange, NSW
Undertow - Dalby Regional Art Gallery, Dalby, QLD
Circularity - Wilson St. Gallery @ Danks, Sydney
2010 Undertow - Moree Plains Regional Art Gallery, Moree, NSW
Undertow - Australian Jewish Museum, Melbourne
Weightlessness - Muswellbrook Regional Art Gallery, NSW
Undertow - Maitland regional Art Gallery, NSW
Undertow - Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery, QLD
Undertow - Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2009 Waterways - Wilson St. Gallery, Sydney
Undertow - Tamworth Regional art Gallery, NSW
2007 Habitat - Wilson St. Gallery, Sydney
Habitat 2 - John Miller Galleries, Newcastle
2006 Absence/substance - New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale, NSW
Moree Plains Regional Art Gallery, Moree, NSW
2005 Weightless - Span Galleries, Melbourne
2005 Marked - John Miller Galleries, Newcastle
2004 Muswellbrook Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2002 Echoes - Michael Nagy Gallery, Sydney
2000 Span Galleries, Melbourne
1999 Paul Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide
1998 Michael Nagy Gallery, Sydney
1997 Beaver Galleries, Canberra
1996 Paul Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide
1995 Michael Nagy Gallery, Sydney
1994 Luba Bilu Gallery, Melbourne
Paul Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide
1993 Michael Nagy Gallery, Sydney
1992 Paul Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide
1990 BMG Fine Art, Sydney
1986,87 Contemporary Galleries, Tel Aviv
1983 A.S.A Travelling Exhibition:
Washington, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco
1979, 80, 82 Graham Gallery, New York
1978 Spectrum Gallery, Vienna
1977 Yolanda Gallery, Chicago
1975, 77 Hansen Gallery, New York
1974 James Yu Gallery, New York
1973 Spectrum Gallery, Vienna
1972 International Gallery, Munich
1971 New Gallery, Tel Aviv
1970 New Gallery, Tel Aviv
selected group exhibitions:
2012 From Paper, Beijing Art Space, Beijing
Lure of the Landscape, Wilson St. Gallery @ Danks, Sydney
2010 Countryscape Art Prize (highly commended)
2009 Surrealism in the 70's- touring exhibition across the USA
Countryscape Art Prize (highly commended)
2008 Norvil Landscape Art Prize - won the prize.
Country Energy Landscape Prize
Fleurieu Biennale SA
2007 Muswellbrook Regional gallery - won the open art prize
2006 Country Energy Landscape Prize
"My Place, My Time, Myself" New England Regional Museum, Armidale
2004 Span Galleries, Melbourne
2003 Michael Nagy Fine Art, Sydney
Country Energy Art Prize, New England Regional Museum, Armidale
2002 Melbourne Art Fair
2001 New England Regional Art Museum
2000 Melbourne Art Fair
1999 Kedumba Drawing Award, Blue Mountains, Sydney
1999 "We are Australians", Melbourne Festival and Victoria Arts Centre (touring exhibition)
1998 28th Alice Prize, Alice Springs, NT
1997 Dobell drawing prize, The Art Gallery of NSW
1997 "Faces of Hope", The Art Gallery of NSW
1997 "Urban Details", commissioned by the 1997 Sydney Festival
1996 Lyall Burton Gallery, Melbourne
1995 The wandering Jew: myth and metaphor, the Jewish Museum Melbourne.
(touring exhibition)
1994 Jupiter Art Prize, Gold Coast Arts Centre, Qld.
Recognising the Republic, Michael Nagy Gallery, Sydney
1993 Michael Nagy Gallery, Sydney
1990 21st Alice Prize, Alice Springs, NT (Selected for touring show)
1990 BMG Fine Art, Adelaide
1989 BMG Fine Art, Sydney
1987 Graham Gallery, New York
1986, 87 Contemporary Galleries, Tel Aviv
1985 Artists Association, Tel Aviv
1982, 84 Graham Gallery, New York
1980 Art 80, New York, Chicago
1979 Cornell University, New York
1979 Fordham University, New York
1977 Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
1977 Rodker University, New Jersey
1977 Newark Museum, New Jersey
1976 Aldrich Museum, Connecticut
1973 Museum for Contemporary Art, Vienna
1973 Von Sidow, Frankfurt
1973 Spectrum Gallery, Vienna
1971 Artists Association, Jerusalem
1970 Artists Association, Tel Aviv
bibliography:
selected press review:
1970 - 1989 - Davar, Ma'riv, Ha'aretz, World of Art, Ha'ir, Yediot Haharonot, New York Times, Connecticut Times, Die Zeit, Die Presse, Art Forum, Arts New York, and more.
1990 - 2011 - The Sydney Morning Herald, The Adelaide Advertiser, 4x5: contemporary art in Israel and abroad, Canberra Times, Art in Australia, The Newcastle Herald, Epoch Times, and more.
selected articles and essays:
"Bress" magazine, Amsterdam 1978
"Heresies" magazine, New York 1978
"Heresies" magazine, New York 1979
"Omni" magazine, New York 1979
"Omni" magazine, New York 1980
"Omni" magazine, (Omni Art Collection), New York 1981
"Omni" magazine, New York 1983
Art in America, New York February 1982.
The Jewish Times, Sydney May 1990, April 1994, May 1999
The Adelaide Advertiser, June 1992, July 1994
The Adelaide Review, July 1992, July 1994, May 1999,
The Sydney Morning Herald, August 1993, September 1995, January 1997
"4x5: contemporary art in Israel and abroad", Aug. 1995
Visibly Female: Feminism and Art Today, Hilary Robinson, Univers New York 1988
The Heroine's Journey, Maureen Murdock, Shambhala, Boston & London 1990
"New Art Four" Craftsman House Australia (1990)
"Images in Contemporary Australian Painting", Craftsman House Australia (1992)
Art Link Vol 11, Australia 1993
Images 2, Craftsman House Australia (1994)
Dictionary of Australian women artists, Craftsman House Australia (1994)
Journal of Literature and Aesthetics, Sydney University 1995
Hermes, magazine of literature and art, Sydney University 1995
4x5: contemporary art in Israel and abroad, November 1995
"New Visions, New Perspectives: voices of contemporary australian women artists",
Anna Voigt, Craftsman House Australia (1996)
"Images 3", Craftsman House Australia (1998)
Australian Artist March 2002
Hunter Style January 2003
"Terminal Magazine" 21st art, autumn 2006 New York, Tel Aviv
50 + : half a century of collecting in Muswellbrook Regional Arts centre (2008)
The international encyclopaedia of Surreal Art, first German edition (2009)
NASHIM: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies and Gender Issues, Indiana University Press, no. 19 Spring 2010
Documentaries
the beholder...(2004) - Leslie Wand Production http://vimeo.com/1116180
notes from the shed (2006) - Leslie Wand Production http://vimeo.com/878437
waterways (2009) - Leslie Wand Production http://vimeo.com/5951163
undertow (2009) - Leslie Wand Production http://vimeo.com/6977225
circularity (2011) - - Leslie Wand Production http://vimeo.com/27364276
Others:
2007 - Turning the Pages - Art and Science Environmental public project
http://www.turningthepages.com.au
1999 - to present Lecturer at the School of Culture and Languages, University of Sydney
For more information - http://www.hannakay.com
