James Lynch

Biography

James Lynch was born and grew up in Reservoir, a 1950s northern suburb of Melbourne. Lynch never really knew what he wanted to do, but studied fine art painting at the Victorian College of the Arts. He works across various media including drawing, installation, painting and animation. Lynch's work was most recently presented in the highly lauded exhibitions Relentless Optimism, at the Carlton Hotel, and the Anne Landa Award for video and new media arts, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 2006 Lynch completed new commissions for the offices of UBS Melbourne and for the site-specific public art project Terminus Projects at the World Square in Sydney. His work has also been featured in the large scale survey exhibitions A Short Ride in a Fast Machine, the 20-year anniversary exhibition of Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne,I Thought I Knew But I Was Wrong - New Video Art from Australia, which toured extensively throughout Asia, and 2004 - Visual Culture Now, at the National Gallery of Victoria and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne. In 2005 he was included in NEW 05, the third edition of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art's annual showcase exhibition focussing on new work by outstanding contemporary artists. He is a founding member of the collaborative group DAMP and is a contributing editor of Natural Selectionmagazine (http://www.naturalselection.org.nz).

Lynch's early work frequently used painted and hand-drawn trompe l'œil effects to emphasise the constructed nature of our everyday lives and fantasies. Lately he has created a series of artworks and animations based on a real collection of people's dreams in which he has appeared, as well as retellings of people's earliest memories, painted tableaux and turned old, broken washing machines into medieval magic lanterns. His work mediates our often conflicted and ambivalent relationships with the Other.

Education

1994–96 

• Bachelor of Fine Art Painting, Victorian College of the Arts Melbourne

2008 - 

• Master of Fine Art candidate, Monash University, Melbourne

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2009 

• Uplands Gallery, Melbourne (Forthcoming) 

2007

• Chinese Laundry, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne

2005

• Some New Paintings and a Zoetrope, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne

2004

• Le Grand Café, Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris, France

2003

• Let Me Be Your Fantasy, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne
• Inside of me is such a part of you, Mori Gallery, Sydney

2002

• The Penelope Syndrome, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne

2000

• You’re Unreal, Studio 12, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne

1999

• A Place in the Sun, 1st Floor artists and writers space, Melbourne

1998

• Real Life Is Everywhere, Grey Area Art Space Inc., Melbourne

Selected Group Exhibitions

2009 

• I walk the line: new Australian drawing, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney curated by Christine Morrow
• Texticles, TCB Melbourne, curated by Rob McHaffie

2008

• Lost and Found: An archeology of the present, 2nd Tarrawarra Biennial, Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria curated by Charlotte Day 
• Young, Hot, Old: TCB tenth anniversary exhibition, TCB Melbourne
• Seamless, National Art School Gallery, Sydney curated by Katie Dyer and Karen Hall
• Looking Out, Macquarie University gallery, Sydney curated by Christopher Hanrahan
• Falls Creek Artists' Camp, Falls creek, Victoria curated by David Thomas
• Circle of Friends, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth curated by Jenepher Duncan and Robert Cook
• Revolving Doors: an exhibition in memory of Blair Trethowan, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne

2007

• Digital Art Festival Tokyo, Tokyo Wonder Site, Shibuya
• A Selection of Recent Acquisitions, Monash University Museum of Art, Monash University Clayton 
• U-turn, Glendale College Art Gallery, Culver City, Los Angeles curated by Larissa Hjorth and Kate Shaw
• Rock, paper, scissors, Westspace Melbourne curated by Patrick Pound and Mark Feary
• Vernacular Terrain, Queensland University of Technology Museum, Brisbane, Beijing Film Academy, Songzhuang Art Museum and Yokohama Art Museum curated by Steve Danzig, Xu Da Wei and Lubi Thomas
• Chat Room, Deloitte Building Sydney, curated by Barbara Flynn
• Relentless Optimism, The Carlton Hotel, Melbourne curated by Mark Feary

2006

• Anne Landa Award for Video and New Media Arts (curated by Natasha Bullock, Linda Micheals and Edmund Capon), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• Big in Japan, Gallery Side 2, Tokyo, Japan
• Reflections in a Golden Eye (curated by Jan Duffy), Linden Contemporary Arts Centre, Melbourne
• Terminus Projects (curated by Clare Lewis), The World Square, Sydney
• Business as Unusual, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne
• Drawn (curated by Maria Zagalla and Kirsty Grant), National Gallery of Victoria, prints and drawings collection, Melbourne

2005

• Team Show, Uplands gallery, Melbourne
• Six Orbits Around the Blue Moon, Ramp Gallery, Waikato University of Technology, Hamilton, New Zealand
• Picturing the Landscape, Deloitte, Sydney
• Short Ride in a Fast Machine, 20-Year Anniversary Exhibition, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne
• New05 (curated by Max Delany), Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
• Slave, Victorian College of the Arts Gallery, Melbourne
• From Space to Place (residency and exhibition curated by Marco Marcon), IASKA, Kellerberrin and PICA, Perth
• New Territories, ARCO, Madrid, Spain
• Art Berlin, Berlin, Germany

2004

• I Thought I Knew But I Was Wrong - New Video Art from Australia (curated by Alexi Glass and Sarah Tutton), Jamjuree Gallery, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore and Ssamziespace, Seoul, Korea
• Sharon Goodwin’s Bedroom Collection, Dudespace, Melbourne
• ABN Amro Award, Sydney
• 2004 - Visual Culture Now (curated by Jason Smith, Kelly Gellatly and Dr. Charles Green), National Gallery of Victoria and the Australian Center for the Moving Image, Melbourne
• Real Not Real (curated by Dawn Kanost), Adelaide Festival, Adelaide
• MAC, Mexico City, Mexico
• Art Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
• Artissima, Turin, Italy
• FIAC, Paris, France

2003

• Octopus 4 - More Real Than Life (curated by Alexi Glass), Gertrude Artists Spaces, Melbourne
• New Entries, Artissima, Turin, Italy

2002

• Closing Exhibition, 1st Floor Artists' and Writers' Space, Melbourne
• Team Show 2, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne
• The Home Front (curated by Lisa Byrne), Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
• Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear? Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney

2001

• Ascendance, 18th Street Arts Complex, Los Angeles
• Hospitality (collaborative project by A Constructed World), Foxy Productions, New York
• The Team Show, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne
• Weird, Stupid and Short Lived - Rubik 12, Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney

2000

• 200 Gertrude Street annual studio artists exhibition, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne
• Paintings Are Ace, Linden Arts Centre and Gallery, Melbourne
• Nostalgia for the Apocalypse (curated by Lyndal Walker), PB Gallery, Swinburne University, Melbourne
• Are You Experienced? - Rubik 10, Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand
• Family Romance (curated by Sean Meilak), 1st Floor artists' and writers' space, Melbourne and Rubyayre, Sydney

1999

• Paradise - Rubik 9, Room3, Auckland, New Zealand
• Make It Yourself, 200 Gertrude Street annual studio artists exhibition, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne
• Facsimile (curated by Stuart Koop), Laboratoria Arte Contemporaneo, Caracas, Venezuela, Plimsol Gallery, Tasmania (2000) and Bendigo City Art Gallery, Victoria (2000)
• Videosonic (curated by Kym Maxwell), AltTV video screen, Melbourne
• Dazzle (curated by Russell Storer and Andrew McQualter), 1st Floor artists' and writers' space, Melbourne

1998

• Video Vs Watercolour - Rubik 3, Melbourne
• Everybody Knows (curated by A Constructed World Geoff Lowe and Jacqui Riva), Openspace and care-of Spazio D’art Contemporanea, Milan, Italy
• Video Soup, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Cosmetic (curated by Sean Meilak), Stripp Gallery, Melbourne

1997

• Two Men with a Struggle (with Sean Meilak), 1st Floor artists' and writers' space, Melbourne
• Going Nowhere: Video Show (curated by Julia Gorman), Grey Area Art Space Inc., Melbourne
• Gathering (curated by Ricky Swallow), Platform2, Melbourne

Publications

2005

• Volumeverything, Clubs Project Inc,

2003

• Volumeveryone, Clubs Project Inc,

2002

• Charley magazine #2, published by Maurizio Cattelan and PS1, New York,

1997

• Permanent Food magazine #3, published by Maurizio Cattelan, 1997, pgs42-43

• rubik 1,4,8 ,10.

Bibliography

2009

• Morrow, Christine and Kit Wise "I walk the line; new Australian drawing" Museum of Contemporary Art Limited, 2009 pgs 6, 43 - 44 (catalogue)

2008

• Cook, Robert "Circle of friends" Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 2008 (catalogue)
• Day, Charlotte "Lost and Found: An archeology of the present." Tarrawarra Museum of Art ltd, July 2008, pgs 22, 23, 54 (catalogue)
• Dyer, Katie "Seamless: Object and Image" National Art School 2008 (catalogue)
• Farmer, Margaret, Michael Fitzgerald and Katrina Schwarz editors "James Lynch" in Current: Contemporary Art from Australia and New Zealand, Art and Australia and Doft Publishing, 2008 pgs 172 - 175
• Lynn, Victoria "Current Fragments" in Current: Contemporary Art from Australia and New Zealand, Art and Australia and Doft Publishing, 2008 pg 10.
• Hisako, Hara "Intertwined memory and reality" Tokyo Wonder Site, 2008 pg 2 (catalogue) 
• Yusaku, Imamura "The start of a deep an intimate relationship" Tokyo Wonder Site, 2008 pg 1 (catalogue)

2007

• Crawford, Ashley, "James Lynch" The Age, A2 Saturday Supplement, 12 May 2007 pg 10 (review)
• Delaney, Max "A Selection of Recent Acquisitions", Monash University Museum of Art, Monash University Melbourne, November 2007 pg 8 (catalogue)
• Frost, Andrew "Beneath the Streets, Terminus Projects" Art and Australia, volume 44 no. 2, Summer 06-7, pg 278 (review) 
• Hjorth, Larissa with Kate Shaw, "James Lynch" U-turn, Glendale College Art Gallery, September 2007, pg 35 (catalogue)
• Koenig, Tristan "Lynched" Relentless Optimism, Melbourne, 2007, pg 40-41
• King, Natalie "James Lynch" Flash Art, Vol. XL No. 255, July - September 2007, pg 142 (review)
• Koenig, Tristan "Lynched" Relentless Optimism, Melbourne, 2007, pg 40-41 (catalogue)
• McInnes, Vikki "Chinese Laundry" Uplands Gallery, May 2007 (catalogue)
• Nelson, Robert "Feuds den of antiquity fosters yen for iniquity" The Age, Metro News and reviews, Wednesday September 12 2008, pg 20 (review)
• Nelson, Robert "A look beyond the bright side" The Age, A2 Culture and Life supplement, February 17 2007, pg 19 (review)
• Phillips, Dougal "Noun Torture" Broadsheet, Contemporary visual art and culture magazine, vol. 36 no. 1, CACSA Inc., March 2007, pgs 58-59 (review)

2006

• Bensen, Lisa "Is it possible to think straight while orbiting?" Natural Selection magazine, issue 5, Summer 2006, http:www.naturalselection.org.nz (review)
• Bullock, Natasha "Times of our lives" Anne Landa Award, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2006, pg 8 (catalogue)
• Clement, Tracey "Open all hours" The Sydney Morning Herald, Metro, June 2-8 2006, pg 27
• Crawford, Ashley, "James Lynch" Art and Australia, ANZ and Art and Australia emerging artists program, volume 43 no. 4, Winter 2006, pg 640-642
• Gellatly, Kelly "Reflections in a golden eye" Linden - St. Kilda Centre for Contemporary Arts, July 2006 (catalogue)
• Lowe, Geoff Sydney Biennale" A Constructed World, speech weblog, http:speech2012@blogspot.com (review)
• Rowell, Amanda "Everybody was..." Anne Landa Award, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2006, pgs 21-26 (catalogue)

2005

• Plant, Simon, 'Bound for Glory', feature article, Herald Sun, Jan. 15, 2005, p. 21.

2004

• Day, Charlotte, '2004', catalogue essay, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne: Craftsman Press, 2004, p. 166.
• Glass, Alexi, 'I Thought I Knew but I Was Wrong', catalogue essay, Melbourne: Asialink and ACMI, 2004, pp. 8-9.
• Thomas, Sarah, '2004: Australian Anxieties', review, Contemporary Visual Arts+Culture Broadsheet 33.3 (Sep.-Nov. 2004), p. 45.
• Wise, Kit, 'James Lynch', review, Frieze - Contemporary Art and Culture 80 (Jan.-Feb. 2004), pp. 98-99.

2003

• Glass, Alexi, 'More Real than Life, Octopus 4', catalogue essay, Melbourne: Gertrude Contemporary Artists Spaces Inc., 2003, pp. 3-6.
• Gorman, Julia, 'The Penelope Syndrome', catalogue essay, Melbourne: Uplands Gallery, 2003.

2002

• Backhouse, Megan, 'The Art of Disconnection', The Age, Sep. 11, 2002, Culture supplement, p. 6.
• Coslovich, Gabriella, 'Art Emerges in Unlikely Places', The Age, April 4, 2002, Culture supplement, p. 4.
• Crawford, Ashley, '50 Most Collectable Artists', Australian Art Collector.
• Daly, Anna, 'Melbourne Round up', review, Log Illustrated 15, The Physics Room Trust, Christchurch, New Zealand (Summ. 2002), p. 4.
• Grawonski, Alex, 'Rubik: A Sum and Its Parts', review, Eyeline Magazine 46 (Spring 2002), p. 40.
• Strong, Geoff, 'Public Art: Now You See It', The Age, June 17, 2002, Culture supplement, p. 3.

2001

• Bugden, Emma, 'Are You Experienced? Rubik #10', review, Log Illustrated 11, The Physics Room Trust, Christchurch, New Zealand (Summ. 2001), pp. 44-45.

2000

• Koop, Stuart, 'Between the First and Second Floors', feature essay, Good Thinking Words and Pictures on Contemporary Melbourne Art, Melbourne: 1st Floor artists' and writers' space Inc., 2000, pp. 48-52.
• Maxwell, Kym, 'James Lynch: Real Life Is Everywhere', catalogue essay, New Model Video Collection, La La Hi Prism Inc., 2000.
• Nelson, Robert, 'Seeing Is Believing', review, The Age, Nov. 24, 2000, Today supplement, p. 6.
• Nelson, Robert, 'From Here to Eternity and Make It Snappy', review, The Age, Dec. 13, 2000, Today supplement, p, 7.
• Rhodes, Briony, 'Facsimile', review, Eyeline Magazine 42 (Win. 2000), p. 47.
• Trotter, Penny, 'James Lynch: Are You Experienced?', catalogue essay, Rubik #10, Rubik, 2000, p. 10.

1999

• Kent, Rachel, 'Rubik', review, Art/Text Magazine 64 (1999), p. 48.
• Koop, Stuart, 'Facsimile', catalogue essay, Melbourne: ACCA Inc. and CCP Inc., 1999.
• Storer, Russell, 'Dazzle', catalogue essay, Melbourne: Russell Storer & Andrew McQualter Inc., 1999.
  

1998

• Palmer, Daniel, 'Real Life Is Everywhere', review, Eyeline Magazine 37 (Win. 1998), p. 42.
• Palmer, Daniel, 'We Are Electric', review, Globe eJournal 8 (1998), pp. 1-2.
• Travis, Lara, 'Let's Go Shopping', catalogue essay, Melbourne: 1st Floor artists' and writers' space Inc., 1998.
• Tutton, Sarah, Eilish Kidd, David Rosetzy et al., 'Escalator Remix', catalogue essay and reviews, Artfan 8, ACW Inc., 1998, pp. 8-9.

Collections

• Naomi Milgrim Collection Melbourne
• ANZ and Art and Australia Collection
• AustCorp Collection, Sydney
• BHP Biliton Collection, Australia 
• The Michael Buxton Collection, Melbourne
• Heide Museum of Modern Art , Melbourne
• Lienart Collection, Belgium
• Le Bourcher Collection, Paris
• Lopez-Rocha Collection, Mexico City
• Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
• UBS Collection Melbourne
• Warnambool Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia

Awards and Prizes

2007

• Asialink visual art residency Tokyo Wonder Site Tokyo 

2006

• ANZ Private Bank and Art and Australia artist prize

2004

• Australia Council for the Arts Visual Arts and Craft Board New Work Grant

2003

• Arts Victoria International Touring Fund, Melbourne 

2001

• Ian Potter Cultural Trust, Travel Scholarship, Ian Potter Foundation, Melbourne
• Australia Council for the Arts Visual Arts and Craft Board New Work Grant Los Angeles studio residency