Rose Nolan installing a work at the Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington New Zealand, 2007
Rose Nolan (born 1959) is an Australian visual artist based in Melbourne with work held in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.[1][2] She makes work in a variety of material forms: books, small sculptures, photographs, posters, paintings, banners, multiples and large-scale installations. A reduced palette of red and white is characteristic of her work. She uses raw and inexpensive materials, such as hessian and cardboard; with the work displaying an unmistakable sense of personal labour through its handmade aesthetic.[3][4]
Career
Nolan was a member of the group of artists who formed ‘Store 5’, a loose experimental collective and artist run space based in Melbourne between 1989 and 1993.[5] She was one of a group of Australian artists who were part a loose cooperative and space connected to the experimental Store 5 Melbourne ARI between 1989 and 1993.[3] The Store 5 artists shared an interest in the traditions of non-objective art, a form of art that relinquishes describing the exterior world in favour of examining the artwork in its material form.[4] Frequent tropes include language, concentrating on the linguistic qualities of words and their connection to architectural space as a material form .[3] Additionally conceptual art, as well the aesthetics of Russian constructivism which adopts the language of abstraction and revolutionary aesthetics and its relationship to a pragmatic utilitarian approach to art, architecture and design with utopian, even revolutionary, social ideals continue to inform Nolan's work today.[3][4] Since the 1980s Nolan has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally.[2] Nolan is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery.[3]
Panorama de 31 artistas internacionales, MINUS SPACE en Oaxaca, Multiple Cultural Venues, Oaxaca, Mexico, curated by Matthew Deleget & Emi Winter (2012)[12]
White trash banners: Congratulations!, It's a girl!, Mother and daughter are both well!, First tooth!, She walked for the first time!, She said 'Papa' for the first time! The Potter Museum of Art, (1996)[14]
My way to God # 1-30, Store 5, Melbourne, (1990)[15]
The national, New Australian Art, Kelly McDonald, Big Words – To keep going, breathing helps (circle work), (2017)[16]
Rose Nolan, With all one’s might and main, Chris McAuliffe, Project Space, RMIT, 1996, (2014)[17]
Un Projects, Carolyn Barnes, Conflicted Territory: Aesthetics and practices in the work of Melinda Harper, Anne-Marie May, Rose Nolan and Kerrie Poliness, 2012) [18]
Frieze, Sue Cramer, Forever, Ian Potter Museum, Melbourne, Australia, (2002)[20]
Selected publications
Big Words (Not Mine) – Read the words 'public space'... Published by Negative Press, (2017)[21]
Enough, Rose Nolan, Limited edition, Published by Negative Press (2016)[22]
Rose Nolan, Why Do We Do The Things We Do, 2011, Eds.: Blair French, Robert Leonard, Published by Artspace Sydney and Institute of Modern Art. (2011)[23]
