SU BAKER
Associate Professor Su Baker has degrees from Curtin University and Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney and holds a Doctorate of Creative Arts, from Curtin University of Technology.
In March 2000 Su moved from Sydney, where she worked for 20 years, including Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney and took up the position she currently holds as Head of the School of Art, Victorian College of the Arts.
Su has held academic positions since 1989, including senior management roles at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney and Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.
Su Baker's current work explores the shift from the critique of representation, prevalent in the latter part of the twentieth century, to one more akin to participation in an event.
Through specific installation strategies in the exhibition of paintings and critical writing the research presents the critical tension between humanist values and associated critical debates on modernism and the discursive field collected under the term 'posthumanisim'.
This research calls for a rethinking of current modes of art criticism in relation to contemporary painting and identified a significant shift from acts of representation to the staging of "painting events".
It is the intention of this research to promote a reinvestment in the silent, visual, libidinal economy of painting with an intellectual gravitas and an underlying seriousness, invoking the "voice" of serious pleasure.
Su Baker has exhibited nationally over the last 20 years in public and commercial galleries, including numerous solo and selected group exhibitions and national survey shows. In 2003 she received a New Work Grant, Visual Arts Grants; in 2000 she spent time at the Milan Studio, granted from the Australia Council where she developed new work exhibited at Boutwell Draper Gallery in Sydney in 2001; Winner of the 1996 Portia Geach Memorial Award. She has received University of Sydney research support grants in 1993 and 1994; an overseas Development Grant, Italian Studio, VACB, Australia Council; 1991 Project Grant, Visual Arts/Crafts Board, Australia Council; 1988 Visiting Artist, Curtin University of Technology, WA 1987; Half Standard Grant, Visual Arts/Craft Board, Australia Council, 1987; Project Grant, Visual Arts Board, Australia Council, 1986. Her work has been collected by private and public collections that include: Art Bank Collection, ACTA Shipping Collection, Alexander Library Collection (WA State Library), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Curtin University of Technology, R&I Bank Collection, Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Wagga Regional Gallery, Private Collections.
CIRRICULUM VITAE
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2003 New Work Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
2001 Development Grant, Milan Studio residence, Australia Council for the Arts
1996 Winner , Portia Geach Memorial Award,
1991 Overseas Development Grant,/ Italian Studio, VACB , Australia Council for the Arts
1988 Project Grant, Visual Arts/Crafts Board, Australia Council,
1987 Visiting Artist, Curtin University of Technology, WA
1987 Half Standard Grant, Visual Arts/Craft Board, Australia Council,
1986 Project Grant, Visual Arts Board, Australia Council,
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009 On Painting : Early Release, John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne
2007 After Quantum Foam, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
2006 New Paintings, John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne
2004 Mis-en-Scene : Reflections on the Screen, John Curtin Gallery,Curtin University Serious Pleasure, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
2002 My Parallel Universe, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney,
2001 ALLAN BAKER + SU BAKER, a show of work by father and daughter. Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth
2001 Close Enough to Touch Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
1996 Su Baker, Pendulum Gallery, Sydney
1994 Still Moments of Exchange Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth WA
1993 Splendid Transgressions Art Gallery of Western Australia,
1993 Slendid Transgressions Canterbury School of Art, Christchurch, New Zealand
1993 Extracts Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth, WA
1992 The Pleasure of the Textural Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth, WA
1990 Recent Paintings Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth , WA
1990 ...continuum and details... IMA, Brisbane QLD
1989 Small Paintings Galerie Dusseldorf. Perth, WA
1988 Concrete Sensations Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth, WA
1987 New Paintings Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth, WA
1986 New Work Union Street Gallery
1986 New Paintings First Draft, Sydney
1986 New Paintings Artspace , Sydney
1985 Neologisms Praxis Gallery, Fremantle, WA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011 Conversations, John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne
2006 déjà vu, Galerie Düsseldorf 30th Anniversary Year Celebratory Exhibition
2005 SHELFLIFE, Perth International Arts Festival 2005, Galerie Düsseldorf, Perth
1998/9 Blake Prize exhibition (touring)
1997 Curtin Print Commission, Curtin University
1996 Portia Geach Memorial Award, Winner
1994 Love and Fascination, First Draft, Sydney, (curator)
1993 Construction in Progress, Artists Museum, Lodz, Poland
1991 Dissonance: Aspects of Feminism Artspace, Sydney, NSW
1989 Sequences Art Gallery of WA
1989 Perspecta 89 Art Gallery of NSW
1989 Second Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne
1988 Women Artists, Art Gallery of WA
1988 First Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne
1987 13 Artists at Galerie Dusseldorf Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth
1987 Among the Souvenirs Festival of Perth Exhibition Art Gallery of WA,
1985 Australian Maritime Art Award Travelling Show
1984 Vertigo Sydney College of the Arts, NSW
1983 Paperworks' Travelling Show for the Art Gallery of WA
1983 Figures and Faces Drawn from Life, Heide Gallery, Vic.
1982 Artists Against Uranium Travelling Show , E.A.F. S.A.
1981 Archibald Portrait Prize' Exhibition, AGNSW
1980 Women Artists Fine Arts Gallery, Perth
SELECTED REVIEWS
2004 Blond, Simon, West Australian , September
1996 Brook Turner, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 4
1996 Jane Richardson, The Australian, October 4
1996 David Bromfield, West Australian , October 24
1996 Bruce James Radio National Arts Today Saturday 5th October,
1996 Ros Nougher, University of Sydney News 23rd October,
1994 Gregory Volk, Art and Text, January,
1992 David Bromfield, The West Australian, April 4,
1990 Edward Colless, Eyeline Magazine May, "Perspecta 89", ,
1988 David Bromfield The West Australian, November 3.
1987 David Bromfield West Australian, March 19
1987 Ted Snell, Sunday Independent, March "Infinity of Mirrors"
1987 Julie Prott, The West Australian March "Filters used to taunt viewers"
1987 Bruce Adams, The Sydney Morning Herald, December
1986 John McDonald The Sydney Morning Herald, May 2
1985 Ted Snell The Western Mail, April 5-7
CATALOGUES FOR PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS
2004 Serious Pleasure, Edward Colless, Curtin University
2000 Australian Painting Now, Craftsman House Press
1992 The Painted Image. Ed. Ted Snell, Curtin University Press,
1991 Dissonance: Aspects of Feminism Ed. Sally Coucaud, Artspace, NSW
1990 "continuum and details..." Anna Gibbs, for Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, QLD
1989 Perspecta '89 Helen Topliss and David McNeill, Art Gallery of NSW,
1987 Among the Souvenirs, David Bromfield, Art Gallery of WA
1985 PaperWorks, Anthony Bond, Art Gallery of WA travelling exhibition,
1984 Figures and Faces, Heide Park and Gallery, VIC
COLLECTIONS
ArtBank Collection
ACTA Shipping Collection
Alexander Library Collection (W.A. State Library)
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Curtin University of Technology
R &I Bank Collection
Robert Holmes à Court Collection
Wagga Regional Gallery
Private Collections