Jody Graham
“My life is enriched by unexpected encounters with wild creatures that drop in randomly when they want. I draw with gloves I invented while listening to recorded bird noises. I do this, so my drawing movements respond to the calls I am hearing. My aim is to capture the energy I feel, see and hear connected to Australian birdlife.”
-Jody Graham
Jody Graham is a multidisciplinary artist whose work encompasses drawing, mixed media, sculpture, installation and performance. Drawing lies at the heart of her practice, and she continuously reinvents it using unconventional tools such as rocks, bones, wire bound to her hand, bent umbrellas and kangaroo bones, to create new symbolic marks and challenge traditional techniques. Drawing inspiration from her early experiences working in her father's scrap-metal factory in western Sydney, she developed a fascination with visual chaos, machinery, and found materials. Themes of impermanence, loss, displacement and restoration recur throughout her work, reflecting her commitment to rescuing discarded materials and repurposing them into expressive forms.
Graham has presented over sixteen solo exhibitions and regularly exhibits in group shows across Australia. She has won major awards, including the Greenway Art Prize in 2017 and 2020 and the prestigious Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing in 2022. She has also been a finalist in the Blake Prize, the Dobell Drawing Prize, and numerous regional art contests. Her work is held in significant public and private collections, including the Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings and the Adelaide Perry Drawing Collection. It is also held in council collections in Waverley, Blacktown and Western Sydney, as well as in private collections in Australia, the UK, the USA, Dubai and New Zealand.
About the Artist
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Born 1968. Lives and works in Sydney, NSW
Education
2018 Master of Art UNSW Art & Design Paddington
2012 Advanced diploma in Visual Art, WSI, Nepean Campus, NSW
1991 Billy Blue Graphic Art School, Diploma, North Sydney
1987-89 City Art Institute, Paddington
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Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024
Wild Thing, Nanda/Hobbs Gallery, Sydney, NSW2023
Exhibition of New Work, Lost Bear Gallery, Katoomba, NSW
Voila, Nanda/Hobbs Gallery, Sydney, NSW2021
Fly like a Bird, Nanda/Hobbs Gallery, Sydney, NSW
Getting Pinked, Lost Bear Gallery, Katoomba, NSW
Somewhere to Land, Nanda/Hobbs Gallery, Sydney, NSW2020
Home, .M Contemporary (online exhibition), Sydney, NSW2019
Witness, Lost Bear Gallery, Katoomba, NSW
Pee in a Wetsuit or Take a Long Hot Spa, Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Sydney, NSW2018
After the Rain, M. Contemporary, Woollahra, NSW
Discarded, AD Space, Paddington, NSW
Around the Block, Art Est Art School & Gallery, Leichhardt, NSW2017
Salvage, Lost Bear Gallery, Katoomba, NSW
Scavenger, Stacks Projects, Potts Point, NSW2015
Sydney Drawn, Lost Bear Gallery, Katoomba, NSW2013
Urban Landscapes, Lost Bear Gallery, Katoomba, NSW2011
Industrial Landscapes, Braemar Gallery, Springwood, NSW
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Women at Altitude, The Kedumba Gallery, Wentworth Falls, NSW2023
Inner Worlds, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW2022
Avant-Garde Weirdo meets Roadkill Artist, Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Sydney, NSW
Change, The Corner Gallery (Birdlife Australia National Bird Week), Stanmore, NSW
FIRE, Climarte Gallery, Richmond, VIC
Mimicry, Rosby Art Gallery, Mudgee, NSW
Blue Mountains Portraits, Blue Mountains City Art Gallery, Katoomba, NSW2021
Transformation, Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, NSW
Looking at Painting, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Casula, NSW
Portraits, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba, NSW2020
Occupied, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba, NSW
Blue Mountains Portraits 2020, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba, NSW
Birdland II, Blue Mountains Heritage Centre, National Parks & Wildlife, Blackheath, NSW2019
Sculpture Otherwise, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba, NSW2018
Articulate Turns Eight, Articulate Project Space, Leichhardt, NSW
Wild: Flora and Fauna in Australian Art, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, Windsor, NSW
String Along, Articulate Project Space, Leichhardt, NSW
Grid, Waiheke Art Gallery, Waiheke Island, New Zealand
Its Not All Black & White, Artsite, Camperdown, NSW
Recent Acquisitions, Blacktown Arts Centre, Blacktown, NSW2017
Smashed Screens, Delmar Gallery, Ashfield, NSW
Mythologies of the Discarded, Peacock Gallery & Auburn Art Studios, Auburn, NSW
Off Site, Gaffa Gallery, Sydney, NSW
Sculpture Otherwise, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, Katoomba, NSW2016
Ephemeral Inscriptions, Gaffa Gallery, Sydney, NSW
William Fletcher Rome Travelling Fellowship & Bundanon Residency, Artarmon Galleries, Artarmon, NSW
Vantage Points, Art Est, Leichhardt, NSW
Out of Africa, The Space Gallery, Sydney, NSW2015
Considered, .M Contemporary, Woollahra, NSW
1200K West - Fowlers Gap, AD Space, UNSW Art & Design Campus, Paddington, NSW2014
Elephant in the Room, Brenda May Gallery, Waterloo, NSW
Highlights from the Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings, Tweed Regional Gallery, Murwillumbah, NSW
Embers of Empathy, pop-up venue, Surry Hills, NSW
Annual Autumn Exhibition, Royal Art Society of NSW, Lavender Bay, NSW
Just Drawing Exhibition, Royal Art Society of NSW, Lavender Bay, NSW2013
African Safari Exhibition, Depot Gallery, Waterloo, NSW2012
Framed, Penrith Regional & Lewers Bequest Gallery, Penrith, NSW
Kedumba Drawing Collection, Orange Regional Gallery, Orange, NSW
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Press / Publications / Blogs / Books
2023
Hot Cities, Steel W, Handmer J, McShane I, RMIT, pp. 116–118
Carbon, Steel W, RMIT2022
Adelaide Perry Artist & Teacher, Oliver J, pp. 218, 219, 232–233
Fibre Arts Take Two, Friday Feature Artist Video
Drawing Interview, CFM Radio, France, 20 April 20222021
In the Studio: Jody Graham, Art Almanac, 20 December
ArtWorks, ABC TV – "A Beautiful Second Life: Creating Art from Recycled Materials", 8 December
Transformation: Art in the Recycle, Glynn L, Timeout, 10 August
THE GARDENS Magazine, Issue 129 (Winter), pp. 16–17
Art Wank Podcast, Season 3, Episode 61 – Jody Graham
BigCi Explores Sights and Sounds, Hawkesbury Gazette, 21 January2019
Sculpture at Scenic World, exhibition catalogue – "Someone Else’s Life"
Scratching the Surface, Scaffer B, exhibition essay for Witness, Lost Bear Gallery, Katoomba, NSW2018
Interrupting the World, Scaffer B, exhibition essay for After the Rain, M Contemporary, Woollahra, NSW2017
Mythologies of the Discarded, Cheeseman J & Marashian N, exhibition catalogue, Peacock Gallery & Auburn Art Studio, NSW
Off Site, Cawthorn M, exhibition catalogue, Gaffa Gallery, Sydney, NSW
NSW Parliament Plein Air Painting Prize, exhibition catalogue, Parliament House, Sydney, NSW
Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, exhibition catalogue, Adelaide Perry Gallery, Croydon, NSW
Siteworks, exhibition catalogue, Bundanon Trust, Illaroo, NSW
Artist Inspired by Bowerbirds, Fortescue E, Daily Telegraph, 5 April
Scavenger, online statement, Stacks Projects2016
Oz Arts, Issue 7 (Summer), "Re-Imagining the Past – Artist Jody Graham", pp. 63–712015
Artist Profile, Jody Graham
Art Collector, Guide to Public & Regional Galleries, Edition 4/2014, p. 41
Oz Arts, Summer/Spring 2013, "Drawing a Crowd – The Kedumba Collection", Julian Leatherdale, pp. 63–722014
Kidd J, ABC News, "Embers of Empathy"
Public Artworks / Commissions / Grants
2019
Art on the Greenway, Leichhardt, NSW2018
Newtown Art Seat, Newtown, NSW
Art on the Greenway, Leichhardt, NSW2017
Siteworks, Bundanon Trust, Illaroo, NSW
Residencies
2023
April, PLC Sydney, Artist in Residence, Croydon, NSW
March, The Squatters Residency, The Foundations, Portland, NSW2022
April–May, DRAWinternational, Caylus, France2020
The Old School, Mt Wilson, NSW
BigCi, Bilpin International Ground for Creative Initiatives, Bilpin, NSW2018
October, Grafton Regional Gallery, Grafton, NSW
March, BigCi, Bilpin, NSW2017
February, BigCi, Bilpin, NSW2016
June–July, BigCi, Bilpin, NSW2015
Blacktown Artist Studio Residency, Blacktown, NSW
Collections
City of Sydney, NSW
Adelaide Perry Collection, Croydon, NSW
Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings, NSW
Waverley Council, NSW
Blacktown City Council, NSW
Western Sydney Institute, NSW
NADC – Nepean Art & Design Centre, Kingswood, NSW
Australian Ford Lands Company
Numerous private collections across Australia and internationally
30 x 28cm