Peter Kennedy
b. 1945, Brisbane, Queensland. Lives and works Melbourne, Victoria.
Solo Exhibitions
2016
Resistance, AEAF, Adelaide
2015
ListenHear, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2011
Peter Kennedy: Light years, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
Peter Kennedy, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2008
ONETWOTHREEFOUR (gumtrees), Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
2003
And – an illumination, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
2002
Peter Kennedy: Selected Works 1970 to 2002, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, the
University of Melbourne
1998
Requiem: for Ghosts, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
1996
Requiem: Choruses from the North and South, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
1995
AJK at the Wall of Ghosts: Watercolours by Peter Kennedy, Sutton Gallery,
Melbourne
1993
Chorus: From the Breath of Wings, Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial, Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne
Transformations, Gold Coast Art Gallery, Gold Coast, University Art Museum,
University of Queensland, Brisbane; Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney
1992
Transformations (work in progress), Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore
Of Maps and Men: From the Secret World of Memory, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
1990
Nature Speaks, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
The Glasshouse Mountains, watercolours, John Buckley, Melbourne
Inhibodress 1970 – 1972, Tim Johnson, Peter Kennedy, Mike Parr, touring
exhibition; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Perth Institute of Contemporary
Art, Perth; Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide; University of Melbourne Art
Gallery, Melbourne
1988-9
The Stars Disordered, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, Bicentennial touring exhibition; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Devonport Art
Gallery, Devonport; Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide;
Undercroft Gallery, Perty; University Art Museum, University of Queensland,
Brisbane; The Centre Gallery, Gold Coast; Power Gallery, University of Sydney;
Wollongong City Gallery, Woollongong; Orange City Gallery, Orange; Canberra
Contemporary Art Gallery, Canberra
1989
Nature Speaks, John Buckley, Melbourne
Popular Front, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
1988
Tantawangalo Landscapes, John Buckley, Melbourne
1987
The Stars Disordered (drawings), University Art Museum, University of
Queensland, Brisbane
1986
Istoria, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, Centre for the Arts, University of
Tasmania, Hobart
1981
November Eleven, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes
Installations No’s. 1 & 2, Ewing Gallery, University of Melbourne
Installation No. 1, Praxis, Fremantle
Installation No’s. 1 & 2, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
1976
Two Contemporary Artists: Peter Kennedy and John Nixon, National Gallery of
Victoria
Introductions, Institute of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Experimental Art
Foundation, Adelaide
1973
Peter Kennedy and Mike Parr, Gallerie Media, Neachatel, Switzerland
1972
Peter Kennedy and Mike Parr, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax; A
Space Gallery, Toronto
Trans Art 1 – Idea Demonstrations, Peter Kennedy and Mike Parr, Inhibodress,
Sydney
Luminal Sequences, Gallery A, Sydney
But The Fierce Blackman, Inhibodress, Sydney
1970
Neon-light Installations (reproduction), Gallery A, Sydney
Tim Johnson and Peter Kennedy, Gallery A, Sydney
1964
The Johnson Gallery, Brisbane
Selected Group Exhibitions
2016-2017
Dissenting Voices, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
2015
Art as a Verb, Artspace, Sydney
See you at the Barricades, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Luminous, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
2014
Art as a verb, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne (touring)
2013
Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2012
Negotiating this World: Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Less is More, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
2011
Ten Years of Contemporary Australian Art: The James C. Sourris AM Collection, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
2009
Sweet Spot, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne
Gallery A Sydney 1964 – 1983, Campbelltown Arts Centre; Newcastle Regional
Gallery
Neon-light installations (reproduction), MCA/Westfield, Sydney, Hoarding, CBD,
Sydney
2008-2009
My Favourite Australian, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, with the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
2008
Figuring Landscapes: artists, moving image from Australia and the UK, Catherine
Elwes (ed), the International Centre for Fine Art Research and Camberwell
College of Arts, University of the Arts, London
2007
The far side of the moon, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin
Reveries: photography and mortality, touring exhibition. National Portrait
Gallery Canberra; University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane;
Mornington Peninsular Regional Gallery, Mornington
The weight of history, Switchback Gallery, Monash University, Gipssland
2006
Light Sensitive: Contemporary Australian Photography from the Loti Smorgon Fund,
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV, Melbourne
2005
Recent Acquisitions, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Unscripted, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
New Acquisitions In Context, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Big Bang – destruction and creation in the 20th century art, Musee Nationale
d’Art Moderne, Paris
2002
Meridian: Focus on contemporary Australian Art, MCA, Sydney
2001
Lightness of Being: Contemporary Photographic Art from Australia, Monash
University Museum of Art, Melbourne
Resonance: Sound and Vision, (organised by Griffith Artworks, Griffith
University), State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
2000
Zeitgenossische Fotokunst aus Australien, Museum Schloss Hardenberg, Velbert,
Kunstsammlung Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Kulturzentrumder Stadt Stuttgart, Stuttgart,
Murer Berliner Kunstvereun, Berlin, Germany.
1999
Signs of Life, Melbourne International Biennial, Melbourne
Commissioned Artworks, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin 1950’s – 1980’s, Queens Museum of Art,
New York, Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, Miami Art Museum, Miami
1999
What John Berger Saw, ANU Canberra School of Art Gallery, Canberra and touring
Orange Regional Gallery, Orange, University of South Australia Museum of Art;
Adelaide, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, John Curtin Gallery; Perth; IMA,
Brisbane
1997
Australian Drawings from the Gallery’s Collection, Art Gallery of New South
Wales, Sydney
The Real Thing, Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne
1994
Pulse Friction, Centre for the Arts, University of Tasmania, Hobart
Kedumba Drawing Award, Blue Mountrains Grammar School, Blackheath, New South
Wales
25 Years of Performance Art in Australia, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
Faciality, Monash University Gallery and Victorian regional gallery tour
1993
Luminaries, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne
In the spirit of Fluxus, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, touring
United States of America and Spain
1992
Contemporary Australian Drawings (from the collection), Art Gallery of New South
Wales, Sydney
1991
Off The Wall In The Air, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
Inaugural Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Artist and Aspects of the Contemporary Art Society, Queensland Branch, Brisbane
City Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Brisbane
1990
Irony, Humour and Dissent, touring exhibition, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery,
Ballarat, Moree Plains Art Gallery, Moree
1989
Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Sydney; Monash University Gallery, Melbourne
1989-90
Satellite Cultures, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, New Museum of Contemporary
Art, New York
1989
Australianarama, Centre for the Arts, University of Tasmania, Hobart
1988
Other Landscapes, United Artists Gallery, Melbourne
6th French-Chilean Video Festival, Santiago, Chile
1985
Queensland Works 1950-1985 Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, University Art
Museum, University of Queensland
1984
Private Symbol, Social Metaphor, 5th Biennale of Sydney Peter Kennedy with John
Hughes, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1983
D’un Autre Continent: l’Austrlie, la Reve et la Reel, Peter Kennedy with John
Hughes, ARC, Musee d’Art Muderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
1982
Eureka! Artists from Australia, Peter Kenedy with John Hughes, Institute of
Contemporary Art, London
1981
Australian Perspecta, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, Art Gallery of New South
Wales, Sydney
1981-2
Recent Australian Video Tapes, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, tour of Japan and
major Australian centres
1980
Videotapes dall’ Australia, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, Venice Biennale
Video Mayfair, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, Sydney Filmmakes Co-op
1979
European Dialogue, Third Biennale of Sydney, Peeter Kennedy with John Hughes,
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1977
Illusion & Reality, all state galleries
1975
Performance, Documents, Film, Video, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1973
Recent Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1972
Summer Festival Exhibition, Reyjkavik, Iceland
Action Film Video, Galerie Impact, Lausanne, Switzerland
Notes and Score for Sounds, Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco
1971
Activities, Inhibodress, Sydney
I want to leave a nice well done child here (20 Australian Artists), Bonython
gallery, Sydney
1970
CAS Annual Exhibition, Farmers Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
1967
Australian Young Contemporaries, Argus Gallery, Melbourne
1965
Young Contemporaries, Farmers Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
Residencies, Awards, Grants
1994 Visual Arts/Crafts Board, Australia Council Fellowship
1996 Earthwatch Fellowship, Papua New Guinea
Public Collections
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide,
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Crown Limited, Melbourne
Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland
Griffith University, Brisbane
Institute of Contemporary Art, London
John Wardie Architects, Melbourne
Kedumba Drawing Prize Collection, Blue Mountains Grammar School, New South Wales
Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
Nepean Collection, School of Contemporary Art, University of Western Sydney
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
RACV, Melbourne
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
Tate Gallery, London
University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Private Collections
Selected Bibliography
Beilharz, P. ‘Departures and Arrivals’, ex. Cat, Requiem for Ghosts, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 1998
Bellamy, L. ‘In the end was the word’, The Age, 21 February, 1998
‘Portrait of the artist as a survivor’, The Age, 30 April 2002
Briers, D. ‘In Australia I will…’, Pages, London, 1971
Bromfield, D. Identities A Critical Study of the work of Mike Parr 1970 – 1990, University of Western Australia Press, Perth, 1991
Brook, D. ‘Sydney Commentary: New Art in Australia’, Studio International, London, Vol181, No930, pp76-80, Feb 1971
‘Idea Demonstrations: body art and ‘video freaks’ in Sydney’, Studio International, London, Vol185, No956, pp269-273, 1973
Cramer, S. Interview, Inhibodress 1970-72, ex. Cat. Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1989
Crombie, I. ‘Here and Now: Contemporary Australian Photography in Australia’, Light Sensitive – Contemporary Australian Photography from the Loti Smorgon Fund, ex. Cat. The Ian Potter Centre: NGV :A, Melbourne
De Groen, G. Conversations with Australian Artists, Quartet, Melbourne, 1978
Engberg, J, ‘AND’, ex. Cat., Requiem for Ghosts, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 1998
Fridemanis, H. Artists and Aspects of the Contemporary Art Society, Queensland Branch, ex. Cat., Brisbane City Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Brisbane, 1991
Green, C. ‘Luminaries’, Art and Text, 47, 1994
Geczy, A &
Genocchio,B. ’What is Installation? : An anthology of writings on Australian installation art”, Power Publications, Sydney 2001
Hall, B. Popular Front, ex. Cat., Coolaroo West Community Houses Inc., Melbourne, 1991
Hansen, D.(ed) ‘Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial’ ex. Cat., Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial, Melbourne, 1993.
Hendricks, J. Fluxus Codex: The Gilbert & Lily Silverman Collection, Detroit, Michigan, in association with Harry N. Abrams Inc., Publishers, New York, 1988
Holmes, J. Peter Kennedy’s Istoria, ex. Cat., Centre For The Arts, University of Tasmania, 1986
Jones, S. Participation TV: Notes on a Early Australian Video Art’, Video Logic, MCA, 2008
Kennedy, P. ‘Inhibodress – Just For The Record’, Art Network, 1982
‘The Exhibition: Different Approaches’, Craft Council of Australia Conference Papers, Craft Council of Victoria, 1979
‘Sydney University Art Workshop, Post 1984’, Discussion Paper, Parts 1, 2, 3, 1984
‘The Visual Arts, Community Arts and Visual Arts Education, A Long Term View – Towards 2000’, Victorian Ministry for the Arts, 1986
Kirby, S. ‘Directions in Australian Radical Art: Affirmation and Opposition’, Art/Network, Summer/Autumn, Sydney, 1982
LIppard, L. (ed) Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object, Studio Vista, London, 1973
Lippard, L. Reconsidering the Object of Art 1965 – 1975, MIT, 2000
‘Out of Control: Australian Art on the Left’, Village Voice, New York, Oct, 1982
Get the Message – Activist Essays n Art ad Politics, Dutton, New York, 1984
Marsh, A. Body and Self: Performance Art in Australia 1969 – 1992, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1993
‘Unmapped: The political dialogue of an artist’, Globe E-Journal, Issue 8, 1998
‘Peter Kennedy: Poetics, politics, and a silent music’. Interview, Globe E-Journal, Issue 8, 1998
‘Requiem, Chorus – Peter Kennedy’s Millennium Opus’, Eyeline, No. 36, 1998
‘Peter Kennedy An Avant-Garde Practice’, ex.cat, Peter Kennedy: Selected Works 1970 – 2002, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, 24 April – 30 June, 2002
‘The Medium as Ghost: Politics, and Poetics in Peter Kennedy’s work’, in Hilda Van Gelder and Helen Westgeest (eds.), Photography between Poetry and Politics: The Critical Position of the Photographic Medium in Contemporary Art, Leuven University Press, Belgium, 2008
Mateer, J. ‘Peter Kennedy Selected Works 1970 – 2002’, Art Monthly, #151, July 2002
Miles, M. ‘Peter Kennedy: Urban Illuminations’, Eyeline, #52, 2003
Murray, J. ‘Australia’, Art and Artists, November 1972
Murphy, B. Lightness of Being: Contemporary Photographic Art from Australia, ex. cat., Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
Murphy, J. ‘Gallery A, Sydney, 1964 – 1983’ exhibition catalogue, Campbelltown Arts Centre and Newcastle Regional Gallery, 2009
Nelson, R. ‘Australia’s Renaissance of Drawing – The Rebirth of the Pictorial Face?’, Arena, Melbourne, Dec 1992, Jan 1993
Plant, M. ‘Peter Kennedy’, Meridian: Focus on contemporary Australian art, ex. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
Phipps, J. Off The Wall in the Air, ex. cat., Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 1991
Scarlett, K. ‘Melbourne, Australia. Peter Kennedy, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art’. Sculpture, Washington, October, 1998.
Sheridan, N. Data Arte, 19, Nov/Dec 1975, Milan, Italy.
Smith, B. Australian Painting 1788-1990, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1991
‘Peter Kennedy. Chorus: From The Breath of Wings’, ex. cat. Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne, 1993
Smith , T Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950’s – 1980’s, ex. cat, Queens Museum of Art, New York, 1999
Underhill, N. ‘Art on the Agenda’, Praxis M, no. 16, Perth, 1987
‘Peter Kennedy: Breaking down the Barriers’, Art & Australia
Vivian, H.(ed) When you think about Art: the Eging and George Paton Galleries 1971 – 2000, Macmillan, Melbourne, 2008
Walking, L. ‘Peter Kennedy: In Conversation’. Photofile, #66, September 2002, published by Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney.
Zurbrugg, N. ‘Inhibodress 1970-72’, Art + Text, #35, Summer 1990
Documentaries
This is Modern Art – Hollow Laughter, Channel 4 Television Corporation UK 1999
Other than Art’s Sake, series of interviews with Steve Willats, Hans Haacke, Judy Chicago, Arlene Raven, Adrian Piper, David Medalla, Charles Simonds, and Ian Breakwell, 1973
Selected Catalogues
Peter Kennedy: Light Years 1970-1, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane 2011
Video Logic, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 2008
Light Sensitive – Contemporary Australian Photography from the Loti Smorgon Fund, ex. cat. The Ian Potter Centre: NGV : A, Melbourne, 2006
Peter Kennedy: Selected Works 1970 – 2002, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 2002
Lightness of Being: Contemporary Photographic Art from Australian, ex. cat. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany 2001
What John Berger Saw, ex. cat., ANU Canberra School for Art, Canberra, 2000
Signs of Life, ex. cat., Melbourne International Biennial, Melbourne, 1999
Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s – 1980s, ex.cat, Queens Museum of Art, New York, 1998
Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial. Vols 1&2, ex. cat, Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial, Melbourne, 1993
Luminaries, ex. cat., Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 1993
Off the Wall In The Air, ex. cat, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 1991
Inhibodress 1970 – 1972, ex. cat., Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1989
Fluxus Codex: The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection; ex. cat., in association with Harry N Abrams Inc Publishers, New York, 1988
The Stars Disordered, ex.cat, University Art Museum, University of Queensland, 1988
Private Symbol, Social Metaphor, ex.cat, Fifth Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, 1984
D’un autre Continent: l’Australie le reve et le reel, ex. cat., Musee dart Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, 1983
Eureka! Artists from Australia, ex. cat., ICA/Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1982
Australian Perspecta, 1981, ex. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1981
European Dialogue, ex. cat., Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, 1979
Flash Art, Milan, Hune/July, 1979
Illusion and Reality, ex. cat, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1977
Recent Australian Art, ex. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1973