Helen Johnson
Born 1979 in Melbourne, Australia
Lives and works in Melbourne
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
Follower, Leader, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Australia
2023
Opening, Pilar Corrias, London, UK
2022–2023
The red thread of history, loose ends, Balnaves Commission Exhibition with Judy Watson, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne; yapang/Museum of Art and Culture, Lake Macquarie, Australia
2021
Things Held Fast, Brixton Header Mural for Art on the Underground, London, UK (commission)
Pieces of Work, Château Shatto, Los Angeles, US
2019
Agency, Pilar Corrias, London, UK
2018
Warm Ties, Artspace, Sydney, Australia
2017
Ends, New Museum, New York, US
Warm Ties, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Chapter, Cardiff, UK
2016
Keep your voice low and you can win any point, Art Basel Statements, Basel, Switzerland
Barron Field, Glasgow International, Director’s Programme, Glasgow, UK
2015
Cafe Fatigue, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
The body is through, Laurel Gitlen, New York, US
Slow Learners, Château Shatto, Los Angeles, US
2014
Ex-execs, Minerva, Sydney, Australia
Time Flies, Sutton Projects, Melbourne, Australia
Problem History, MADA Gallery, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
2013
Time enough for love, Chapter House Lane, Melbourne, Australia
Meantime, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2012
Dead Metaphor, ACME Project Space, London, UK
2011
System Preferences, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Universal Remote, Y3K Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2010
An Effort of Memory, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia
2009
On the Make, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, Australia
Love over Gold, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2007
Do not go gentle into that goodnight, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Some thoughts on interiority, Summer residency presentation, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Germany
Australia in the the Seventies, Joint Hassles, Melbourne, Australia
2005
Customs and Mods, Galleri Schnauzer, Oslo, Norway
The time has come to unlearn almost everything you know, Little Salon, Melbourne, Australia
2004
Like theatre, like perfume they are dreaming of themselves, Studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, Australia
You must have been in strange places, Westspace, Melbourne, Australia
Live at the Obelisk, Bus Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia
Homo Sacer, La Trobe Art Institute, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
2021
UN/LEARNING AUSTRALIA, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Trembling, Villa Paloma, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco
No One is an Island, Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, Norway
A Year in Art: Australia 1992, Tate Modern, London, UK
Carnivalesca: What Painting Might Be, Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
2020
Towards Regrowth, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2019
Trouble in Paradise: Collection Rattan Chadha, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
A Cloth Over a Birdcage, Château Shatto, Los Angeles, US
2018
The Shape of Things to Come, Buxton Contemporary, Victoria, Australia
Today Tomorrow Yesterday, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
2017
The National 2017, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, Australia
Australian Collection, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
The History Show, Foxy Production, New York, US
2016
Untitled (A Mensa Halloween), 621 S Anderson, Los Angeles, US
Painting. More Painting, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
TarraWarra Biennial: Endless Circulation, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Australia
2015
I wish I never kissed that frog, Jeanine Hofland, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Of deceit, Greenwood Street Project, Melbourne, Australia
Pleasure and Reality, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Relational Changes, Christine König Galerie, Vienna, Austria
In my absence, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, France
June: A Painting Show, Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK
The Material Turn, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Care, Interstate, New York, US
I refuse to participate in failure, SPREEZ, Munich, Germany
2014
Nine paintings presentation, The Alderman, Melbourne, Australia
Fin, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, Australia
Re-raising Consciousness, TCB, Melbourne, Australia
Sunny and Hilly, Minerva Theatre, Sydney, Australia
At Once (in collaboration with Adelle Mills), 55 Sydenham Rd, Sydney, Australia
Just Paintings (in collaboration with George Egerton Warburton and Hamishi Farah), Westspace, Melbourne, Australia
I can spare what you asked for, flag for the Westgate Bridge, in association with Melbourne Now at the NGV (in collaboration with Brook Andrew, Jon Campbell and Kate Daw), Australia
Sublet, 50 Napier Street, Fitzroy, Australia
2013
Method and Gesture, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Monochrome Exhibition, Sutton Projects, Melbourne, Australia
Mural Problem, Otras Obras, Tijuana, Australia
Decline, Top Shelf, Melbourne, Australia
Third/Fourth, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Wavy Banners Project, ET4U, Vemb, Denmark
Collage: The Heide Collection, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia
2012
Negotiating this world, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Art & Australia Collection 2003-2013, Regional touring exhibition, various venues, New South Wales, Australia
Ode to Form, Westspace, Melbourne, Australia
Chinatown: the sequel, LTD, Los Angeles, US
Temperament Spectrum, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Of Virgins, Greenwood Street Projects, Melbourne, Australia
2011
Art2: Horsham, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (Curated by Hannah Mathews), Melbourne, Australia
Subtext, UnProjects at Westspace, Melbourne, Australia
You’re Welcome, Fundraiser for the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, Mars Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2010
Stick It! Collage in Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Addition/Erasure, VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2009
Octopus 9: I forget to forget, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne; Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra, Australia
Cross Colouring, Hell Gallery, Melbourne, Australia; Gambia Castle, Auckland, New Zealand
Order/Disorder, C3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne, Australia
2008
Y2K Artist Run Artist Funded Melbourne Biennale, TCB, Melbourne, Australia
Robert and Bobby Creely perform ‘Listen’ (1972 Radio Play), Joint Hassles, Melbourne, Australia
The Library Project, Frankston City Library, Melbourne, Australia
The Nightclub Project: Everybody’s Free, Billboard for Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, Australia
Skin and Bones, curated by Patrick O’Brien, Bus Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
The Monobrow Show, Hell Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2007
The Independence Project, Galerie Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
A Bridge too Far, Alliance Francaise, Melbourne, Australia
eg., Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart, Australia
2006
Octopus 6: We know who we are, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne; Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, Australia
New06, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
Escape Artist-Run Artist Party High Street Project, Christchurch, New Zealand
Great Dividing Range, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra, Australia
Group Show, Joint Hassles, Melbourne, Australia
2005
Not to be confused with the Melbourne International Flower and Garden (with Kylie Forbes), ClubsProject Inc., Melbourne, Australia
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2015
Language Face, Minerva, offsite, Melbourne, Australia
2014
WORK, Slopes, Melbourne, Australia
2011
Love in the Mourning, Death be Kind, Melbourne, Australia
2009
New World Records, Sutton Gallery, (with Nick Mangan), Melbourne, Australia
2008
Ugly Heritage, Joint Hassles, Melbourne, Australia
Informal Rituals, TBC, (with Alex Vivian), Melbourne, Australia
2005
Slide, exhibition program 2005, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, Australia
EDUCATION
2014
PhD (Fine Art), Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
2002
BFA Painting (Hons), Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
RESIDENCIES, AWARDS, AND GRANTS
2018
Artist in Residence, Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, Melbourne, Australia
2016
Creative Victoria VicArts Grant
2015
Mollie Holman Award for Doctoral Thesis Excellence, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
2014
Artist in Residence, Princes Hill Primary School, Melbourne, Australia
Australian War Memorial ANZAC Centenary Print Portfolio Commission
New Work Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
Australian Artists’ Grant, National Association for the Visual Arts
2012
New Work Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
London Studio Residency, Australia Council for the Arts, London, UK
2011
Artspace Residency, Sydney, Australia
2009
New Work Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
2008
Australian Postgraduate Award
2007
Residency, Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder, Trondheim, Norway
Summer Residency, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
New Work Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
Arts Development (Creation) Grant, Arts Victoria, Australia
Ripe Award for Emerging Artists, Art and Australia/NAVA
2006
Arts Development (Presentation) Grant, Arts Victoria, Australia
2005
Residency, Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dalsåsen, Dale, Norway
Travel Grant, Ian Potter Cultural Trust
2004
Studio Residency, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, Australia