Kevin Mortensen
Artist’s Statement
Kevin Mortensen’s enigmatic artworks are as diverse as the media in which he is proficient. He combines refined personal motifs into a unique visual language, creating works that resonate as potent and profound.
Biography
Figurative and abstract sculptor and printmaker Kevin Mortensen studied at the Melbourne Teachers College and Prahran Technical College in art teaching from 1957 to 1960, he later studied sculpture at RMIT from 1962 to 1966 where he also lectured in the 1970’s and early 1980’s. Mortensen has held solo exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney and his work was included in group exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Heide Museum of Modern Art, VIC and several sculpture triennials. He was awarded the Mildura Sculpture Triennial Prize in 1973 and 1975 and a Victorian Arts Board grant in 1975. His work is held by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; most state galleries and several regional and university galleries.
Exhibitions
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 ‘The Alchemist’, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, VIC ‘Sculpture, paintings, drawings and prints’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2016 ‘Catharsis’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne ‘SERIOUS PLAY: The Art of Kevin Mortensen’, book launch accompanied by an exhibition of selected works, Australian Galleries, Melbourne ‘Transmitter’, exhibition and book launch, Gecko Studio Gallery, Fishcreek, VIC
2014 ‘Sculpture & Drawing’, Australian Galleries, Roylston Street, Sydney
2013 ‘Sculpture & Drawings’, Australian Galleries, Derby Street, Melbourne
2010 ‘Serious play’, Australian Galleries, Glenmore Road, Sydney
2009 ‘Back to the sea from which I came’, Australian Galleries, Smith Street, Melbourne
2007 ‘World View’, Australian Galleries Painting & Sculpture, Melbourne
2006 ‘Bronze Sculpture, Jewellery, Drawings & Etchings’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2003 ‘Like a Dog with a Bone’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2001 ‘What the Raven Saw (Thought and Memory)’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1998 ‘Man and the Bird – Man and the Sea’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1997 ‘Inside the Bower: Kevin Mortensen’, Latrobe Regional Gallery, VIC Canberra School of Art Gallery, Australian National University, ACT Benalla Art Gallery, VIC
1996 Australian Galleries, Sydney
1994 Australian Galleries, Melbourne
1992 Sale Regional Art Gallery, VIC Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne
1991 Powell Street Graphics, Melbourne 1986 Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney
1981 Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
1979 Watters Gallery, Sydney
1975 ‘Shards from a cave-carters backyard’, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1974 Pinacotheca Gallery, Melbourne 1971 Pinacotheca Gallery, Melbourne
1967 Argus Gallery, Melbourne
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 ‘Australian Galleries: The Purves Family Business. The First Four Decades’, Book Launch and Group Exhibition, Australian Galleries, Melbourne ‘papermade’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2018 ‘Yering Station Sculpture Award and Exhibition, Yering Station, Yarra Glen, VIC
2017 ‘Yering Station Sculpture Award and Exhibition, Yering Station, Yarra Glen, VIC ‘Sculpture: medium and small scale – Mixed Sculptors’, Australian Galleries, Sydney
2014 ‘one of each’, Australian Galleries, Derby Street, Melbourne
2011 ‘large exhibition of small works’, Australian Galleries, Roylston Street, Sydney ‘large exhibition of small works’, Australian Galleries, Derby Street, Melbourne
2010 ‘Summer stock show’, Australian Galleries, Smith Street, Melbourne ‘Artists’ Prints made with Integrity I’, Australian Galleries, Smith Street, Melbourne
2009-10 ‘Summer Stock Show’, Australian Galleries, Derby Street, Melbourne
2008 ‘Off the point’, Celia Rosser Gallery, Fish Creek, VIC ‘Who let the dogs out’, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, NSW
2007 ‘Summer Stock Show’, Australian Galleries Works on Paper, Melbourne ‘Small Pleasures’, Australian Galleries Painting & Sculpture, Melbourne
2006 ‘Stock Show’, Australian Galleries Painting & Sculpture, Melbourne ANL Maritime Art Prize, Melbourne ‘50th Anniversary Exhibition’, 5th June, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2005 ‘Notes from the Natural World’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne
2004 ‘Species’, Australian Galleries, Melbourne ‘The Australian Print Workshop Archive 2’, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2003-04 ‘A Modelled World’, McClelland Gallery & Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, VIC 2003 ‘This was the Future’, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne ‘The Jomantis Years’, RMIT, Melbourne ‘The sea, the sea’, Horsham Regional Art Gallery, Horsham, VIC (touring)
1995 ‘Illuminaries’, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne
1994-95 ‘25 Years of Australian Performance Art’, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney; Australian tour
1993 ‘Dame Edna Regrets She is Unable to Attend’, Latrobe Valley Arts Centre, VIC Barwon Wetlands Art Project, Geelong Art Gallery, VIC
1991 ‘Off the Wall in the Air: Art of the Seventies’, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and Monash University Gallery, Melbourne
1990-92 ‘Contemporary Gippsland Artists’, Latrobe Valley Arts Centre, VIC, touring exhibition
1989 ‘Prints and Australia, Pre-settlement to Present’, Australian National Gallery, Canberra ‘Three Days of Performance’, Monash University, Melbourne Fourth Australian Sculpture Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1988 ‘Drawing in Australia 1970s-1980s’, Australian National Gallery, Canberra
1987 ‘Why People Go To Traffic Accidents’, Theatre Works, Melbourne ‘Gravity’s Angels’, Wangaratta Artspace, VIC
1985 ‘Works from the Monash Collection’, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne
1984 Second Australian Sculpture Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1983 ‘Continuum’, Awajicho Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 1982 ‘Eureka! Artists from Australia’, ICA, London
1981 ‘Australian Perspecta’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney First Australian Sculpture Triennial, Latrobe University, Melbourne ‘Anzart’, The Boiler House, Christchurch, New Zealand ‘Animals and Animism in Australian Art’, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
1980 Adelaide Festival of Art, Performance Week, Adelaide; Venice Biennale, Australian Pavilion, Italy
1978 ‘Act 1’ Performance Festival, Australian National University, Canberra ‘Lost and Found: Objects and Images’, Ewing and George Paton Gallery, The University of Melbourne Union, Melbourne
1976 Biennale of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney ‘Link Exhibition’, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
1975 ‘Artist’s Artists’, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Mildura Sculpture Triennial, VIC
1973 Mildura Sculpture Triennial, VIC
1972 Group Exhibition, Pinacotheca Gallery, Melbourne
1970 Mildura Sculpture Triennial, VIC
1968 ‘24 Point Plug Show’, Argus Gallery, Melbourne ‘Alcorso-Sekers’, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
COLLECTIONS Art Gallery of New South Wales; Art Gallery of South Australia; Art Gallery of Western Australia; Burwood State College; City of Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; Deakin Univeristy Art Collection; Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale Grafton Regional Gallery; Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell; Monash University; National Gallery of Australia; National Gallery of Victoria; Parliament House Art Collection; Private collections Tasmanian Musuem & Art Gallery; University of Queensland
Showing the single artwork
