Stella Brennan Explained

Stella Brennan
Birth Place:	Auckland, New Zealand
Field:	installation art
Training:	University of Auckland

Stella Brennan (born 1974) is a New Zealand artist, curator, and essayist.

Background

Brennan was born in 1974, in Auckland, New Zealand.^[1] She graduated from the University of Auckland with an MFA in 1999. She currently lives in Auckland.^[2]

Career

Brennan is a mixed media installation artist. She utilises a variety of materials including found objects, video projection, and sculpture. Her work explores concepts of space and time between individuals and address issues such as industrialisation, colonialism, and technology.

Brennan has published as an art critic and appeared in ArtAsiaPacific, the New Zealand Listener and Art New Zealand. She has also worked as an essayist for artists Patricia Piccinini and Ann Veronica Janssens.

In 2001 Brennan was the artist in residence at Artspace Sydney and in 2004 she was the inaugural Digital Artist in Residence at the Department of Screen and Media Studies at University of Waikato.^[3] In 2007 she received a fellowship at Apex Arts in New York.^[4]

Brennan is a co-founder of Aotearoa Digital Arts and was co-editor, with Su Ballard, for the Aotearoa Digital Arts Reader.^[5]

In 2006 she was a finalist for the Walters Prize, with her installation Wet Social Sculpture, first shown at St Paul St Gallery, Auckland.^[6]

Work by Brennan is held in the collection of the Chartwell Collection in the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.^[7]

Brennan is represented by Trish Clark Gallery.

Exhibitions

Brennan has exhibited widely in New Zealand and internationally in Australia, Asia, North America, Europe.

• 2002 Another Green World, Artspace, Sydney^[8]
• 2004 Tommorw Never Knows, The Physics Room, Christchurch
• 2005 Memory Hole, Trish Clark Gallery, Auckland^[9]
• 2006 Envoy from Mirror City and No Stairway, Starkwhite, Auckland
• 2007 No More Gaps, Starkwhite, Auckland
• 2008 South Pacific, Two Rooms, Auckland
• 2008 Second Child, Starkwhite, Auckland
• 2009 The Middle Landscape, Starkwhite, Auckland
• 2012 every room i have ever been in, Audio Foundation, Auckland^[10]
• 2015 Truth + Fiction, Trish Clark Gallery, Auckland (group show with Roger Ballen, Chris Corson-Scott, Jennifer French, Michael Ghent, Alan Miller, Marie Shannon, Ann Shelton, Vincent Ward, and Christine Webster)^[11]
• 2016 Black Flags, Trish Clark Gallery, Auckland^[12]

Curated exhibitions

• 1999 Nostalgia for the Future, Artspace NZ, Auckland
• 2002–2003 Dirty Pixels, Artspace NZ, Adam Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Waikato Museum of Art and History
• 2008 Cloudland: Digital Art from Aotearoa New Zealand, The Substation, Singapore, co-curator

Further reading

Artist files for Stella Brennan are held at:

• Angela Morton Collection, Takapuna Library http://findnzartists.org.nz/artists/artist-file/11/
• Te Aka Matua Research Library, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa http://findnzartists.org.nz/artists/artist-file/4/
• Fine Arts Library | Te Herenga Toi The University of Auckland Libraries and Learning Services http://findnzartists.org.nz/artists/artist-file/6/
• E. H. McCormick Research Library, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki http://findnzartists.org.nz/artists/artist-file/1/
• Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena http://findnzartists.org.nz/artists/artist-file/3/

External links

• Official website

Notes and References

1. Web site: Brennan, Stella. findnzartists.org.nz. en. 30 November 2017.
2. Web site: Stella Brennan. Trish Clark Gallery. 30 November 2017.
3. News: The Physics Room - Exhibitions by Stella Brennan and Joanna Langford. 29 April 2004. The Big Idea. 30 November 2017. en.
4. Web site: New York City Fellow - Stella Brennan. Apex Art. 30 November 2017.
5. Book: Brennan, Stella. The Aotearoa Digital Arts Reader. Ballard. Su. Aotearoa Digital Arts and Clouds. 2008. 9780958278997.
6. News: The Walters Prize 2006. Auckland Art Gallery. 30 November 2017. en.
7. News: Stella Brennan. Auckland Art Gallery. 30 November 2017. en.
8. Web site: Exhibitions. Starkwhite. en-GB. 30 November 2017.
9. Web site: Stella Brennan Memory Hole. Trish Clark. 30 November 2017.
10. News: Stella Brennan – every room i have ever been in / Suzie Gorodi – Finding My Feet (4/10/12 – 27/10/12). Audio Foundation. 30 November 2017.
11. Web site: Truth + Fiction. Trish Clark Gallery. 30 November 2017.
12. Web site: Stella Brennan Black Flags. Trish Clark. 30 November 2017.