Anna Kristensen (b. 1983, Sydney, lives New York) explores the disorientation and implications of mistaken identities between painting, photography and physical space. Her exhibitions form constellations of exacting photorealist paintings, extending their formal poetics outwards into the viewer’s own physical space through a dialogue with sculpture. Each show is an open, ambulatory network for reflection upon the conditions of painting (texture, light, perspective) and a heightened awareness of the physical, emotional and psychological act of looking.
Kristensen has undertaken several residencies in the USA: Vermont Studio Center (fellowship, 2019), MASS MoCA (2020, 2019), Art OMI International Arts Centre, Ghent, New York (2020, 2018), The Australia Council for the Arts’ Greene Street Studio in New York (2013) and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha (2013). Kristensen was a recipient of an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (2019).
She was awarded a Master of Fine Arts (Research) by the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney in 2009. In 2007, she was a visiting student at the Universität der Künste, Berlin (class of Anette Haas). Recently, she has held the position of Adjunct Professor at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, USA, teaching painting.
Kristensen has presented solo exhibitions for over a decade in regional, commercial galleries and artist-run-initiatives in Australia, Berlin and the US as well as participating in group exhibitions in Australia, Italy, Singapore and the US.
In 2011, Kristensen first exhibited her major early work, Indian Chamber, an in-the-round panoramic oil painting of the Jenolan Caves that was two years in production. Indian Chamber has been exhibited extensively in regional galleries in Australia.
Group exhibitions include Out of Place, curated by Oscar Carpezio, Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra (2021); Certain Realities, curated by Michael Moran, Murray Art Museum Albury, Albury (2019); Waiter Waiter, The Commercial, Sydney; Still Life Pt. II, Verge Gallery, curated by Adam Stone, University of Sydney, Sydney (2019); Obsession: Devil in the Detail, curated by Danny Lacy, Mornington Penninsula Regional Gallery (2018-2019), Antipodean Inquiry, curated by Owen Craven, Yavuz Gallery, Singapore (2016); Solid State, curated by Michael Do, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney (2015); OBJECT LESSONS II: Curtain Situations, curated by Gemma Weston, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth (2015); Right here right now, curated by Michael Do, Penrith Regional Gallery, Sydney (2015); Picture Perfect, curated by Fantom Editions, Viasaterna, Milan (2015); Seven Points (part one): Marley Dawson, Anna Kristensen, Angelica Mesiti, curated by Bree Pickering, Embassy of Australia Gallery, Washington DC (2013); Bellowing Echoes, curated by Marcel Cooper and Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris, Next Wave Festival, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne (2012); Hatched: National Graduate Show, curated by Leigh Robb, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth (2006).
Collections:
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Artbank
Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art
University of Western Australia
Lendlease
Murray Art Museum Albury
Shepparton Art Museum
Wollongong City Gallery.