Robert Andrew
Biography
Born in Perth in 1965, Robert Andrew is a descendant of the Yawuru people, his Country is the lands and waters of the Broome area in the Kimberley Region, Western Australia.
Andrew’s work speaks to the past yet articulates a contemporary relationship to his Country. His work often combines programmable machinery with earth pigments, ochres, rocks and soil to mine historical, cultural and personal events that have been buried and distanced by the dominant paradigms of western culture. There is a continual state of motion conveyed in this work that reflects a circularity in relationships between past and present. The work combines footage sourced from Andrew’s kinetic installations and communicates his evolving relationship to Country as he continues to uncover his familial history.
Andrew’s work has been presented in major exhibitions in Australia and internationally including: Yokohama Triennale, Japan, 2020; The National: New Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2019; Colony: Frontier Wars, National Gallery of Victoria, 2018; Experimenta Make Sense, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2017; and Ars Electronica, Austria, 2017.
His work is held in the collections of National Gallery of Victoria, Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), St Andrew’s Hospital Collection, and Gadens Lawyers Brisbane.
NOTABLE AWARDS
2019 The Lumen Prize, shortlist, UK.
2018 The Alice Prize, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs.
2016 Finalist, Geelong Contemporary Art Prize, Geelong Gallery, Victoria.
2016 Finalist, R&M McGivern Painting Prize, Melbourne, Victoria.
2015 Finalist: Churchie National Emerging Art Prize, Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland.
EDUCATION
Doctorate in Visual Arts Candidate, Griffith University, Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, Queensland.
2013 Fine Art Honours, Griffith University, Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, Queensland.
2012 Bachelor Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art, Queensland College of Art, Brisbane, Queensland.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022 Within an utterance, Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Hobart, Tasmania.
2021 Inscribed, Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
2019 Our Mutable Histories, Ellenbrook Art Gallery, Perth, Western Australia.
2018 Data Stratification, Galerija Kapelica, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
2018 an unforgetting, POP Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland.
2017 Disruptive (ill) logic, Metro Arts, Brisbane, Queensland.
2017 Our Mutable Histories, Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane, Queensland.
2016 Scraping Back My Skin, Spiro Grace Art Rooms, Brisbane, Queensland.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 This language that is every stone, Institute of Modern Art, Queensland.
2022 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
2022 Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art, New South Wales.
2021 Data Imaginary, Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane, Queensland.
2020 The Power of Harmony, Jinan International Biennale, China.
2020 Afterglow, Yokohama Triennale, Japan.
2019 Material Place: Reconsidering Australian Landscapes, UNSW Galleries, Sydney, New South Wales.
2019 Experimenta Make Sense, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, Victoria.
2019 The National 2019, Art Gallery NSW, Sydney, New South Wales.
2019 After Technology, UTS Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales.