The Air Finds it Hard to Breathe - Heidi Kenyon
Opening - 12:00 AM - Thursday, 6th of August
Artist Talk - 5:30 PM
Running - 6 Aug 2009 - 22 Aug 2009
Heidi Kenyon defines her practice by her intuitive process of 'making'. She is inspired by commonplace materials and objects, and has developed an 'innovative and original' approach to working with [materials] that is 'poetic while avoiding the pitfalls of cliché'1
In February 2009 Heidi was awarded the Wilson HTM National Art Prize Encouragement Award, and exhibited in the finalist exhibition at Jan Murphy Gallery in Brisbane. Heidi also recently developed and exhibited a new body of work at the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia's Project Space. She was awarded project support grants from the Helpmann Academy, and NAVA (Janet Holmes à Court Artists' Grant) for this exhibition.
In 2008 Heidi was awarded the Constance Gordon-Johnson Sculpture and Installation Prize, recognising outstanding achievement within the Bachelor of Visual Arts degrees at the South Australian School of Art (SASA), University of South Australia. She was also a finalist in the Adelaide Bank Award.
She has exhibited in various group shows including the Hatched National Graduate Show, a survey exhibition of 61 top visual arts graduates from 20 art schools across Australia. Heidi conducted a radio interview for this show on Perth's RTR FM, and her work was reviewed in the article 'State of Play' in the Weekend Australian. 2 Some of Heidi's honours work was also featured in the first edition of the new national Art Magazine, Art World.3 During the Fringe Festival 2008 Heidi also exhibited in the Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition, for which she was awarded the People's Choice Award (Peter Walker Fine Art Gallery), and First (an exhibition of work by First Class Honours Students graduating from the South Australian School of Art).
In 2007 Heidi completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) at the SASA, graduating with First Class Honours. In each year of her undergraduate and Honours studies Heidi was included on the University of South Australia Dean's or Chancellor's Merit List.
Further to her professional arts practice, Heidi is currently the Retail Gallery Manager at the Hahndorf Academy, an innovative, regional centre for the arts and heritage.
- 1 Professor Kay Lawrence, Head South Australian school of Art, 2008
- 2 Snell, T, 'State of Play', The Weekend Australian, Review, May 3-4 2008, pp. 18-19.
- 3 'Graduate Exhibitions', Art World, Issue 1, February/March 2008, p. 1