Helen S. Tiernan
Helen S. Tiernan is a Canberra based visual artist who majored in painting at the Australian National University (ANU) Canberra School of Art, graduating with honours in 2001. She has exhibited her work widely in the ACT as well as in Victoria and NSW. Helen's work is held in private collections, the ANU Loans Collection and the National Museum of Australia. Helen has received a number of awards and grants. Her work deals with historical and contemporary events and issues affecting Aboriginal people, particularly marginalisation and cultural retrieval.
Her focus has been on cross-cultural interactions and personal journeys, including titles such as Silent Generations, Songlines-journeys through Country and Shared Histories. Mark making and patination, embossed and applied, feature strongly in her works. They refer to familiar patterns recalling a domestic past as well as an Indigenous one. Her paintings interrogate, challenge and explore the many contradictions that lie below the surface of society. Other works explore concerns in relation to the validation of feminine experience and its transformation from craft to art and from the private to the public arena. Throughout each body of work she continues to indulge her fascination with exotic folds of fabric, drawing on the sensual surfaces of traditional seventeenth century Flemish and Edwardian artists and consulting the work of nineteenth century designer of wallpaper and textiles, William Morris. The idea of elevating the ordinary to the extraordinary by giving it cultural and conceptual meaning - from nature to culture - informs her overall approach.
CURRICULUM VITAE 2018
Born in Gippsland, Victoria of Aboriginal and Irish descent. I worked in graphic arts, fashion design and as an art tutor before moving to Canberra in 1997. I completed my under graduate studies at the ANU, Canberra School of Art in 2001. I have exhibited my work in solo and group exhibitions in the ACT, VIC, and NSW. I have works held in private and public collections in Australia, the UK, New York and parts of Europe.
Solo Exhibitions
2017 Transculturation-sublime & Surreal Encounters of First Contact in the Antipodes, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2015 If only the walls could talk, Yately house Braidwood, NSW
2014 Farming without fences, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2014 Farming without fences-How Aborigines made Australia, Belconnen Art Centre, Canberra, ACT
2007 Shared Histories, Tuggeranong Regional Gallery, ACT
2005 Songlines-Journeys through country, ANU School of Art Foyer Gallery, Canberra
2004 Songlines-Journeys through country, Gippsland Regional Art Gallery, Sale, VIC
2002 Silent Generations, Alliance Francaise, Canberra, ACT
2002 Species, The Hive Gallery, Canberra, ACT
Selected Group Exhibitions
2017 Activist Expressionism-politics & beauty in Urban Aboriginal Art- Artist talk, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2015 Altenburg Galley NSW
2014 Deck art, TAC Canberra
2014 Capitol Arts Patrons Organisation (CAPO) Fundraiser, CMAG Canberra
2013 Capitol Arts Patrons Organisation (CAPO) Fundraiser, CMAG Canberra
2012 Florieart, TAC Canberra
2012 Different stories, NAIDOC Week, TAC Canberra
2008 Unearthed, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2007 The Perfect Alibi, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2006 picture this; alumni 2000-6, ANU, School of Art Gallery, Canberra , ACT
2005 Vinyl, M16 Art Space, Canberra ACT
2005 Community Tracks NAIDOC Week Exhibition, ATSI Cultural Centre, Canberra
Canberra Art Prize, Italo Australia Club, Canberra
2005 Capitol Arts Patrons Organisation (CAPO) Fundraiser, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
2004 TRAP, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Canberra
2004 Studio 54 Capitol Arts Patrons Organisation (CAPO) Fundraiser, Canberra Convention Centre Canberra, ACT
2004 Winter 2004, M16 Gallery, Canberra
2003 Temporal Fold, M16 Gallery, Canberra
2003 Kamberri Dreaming, National Museum of Australia, Canberra
2002 Casablanca, Capitol Arts Patrons Organisation (CAPO) Fundraiser,
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
2001 ANU School of Art Drawing Prize, ANU School of Art Foyer Gallery, Canberra
2001 Dark Side of the Moon Capitol Arts Patrons Organisation (CAPO) Fundraiser,
National Museum of Australia Canberra.
2001 Lift Off, Graduation Exhibition, ANU School of Art Gallery, Canberra, ACT
2000 A Thousand Colours, ANU School of Art Gallery, Canberra, ACT
Awards/Grants/Prizes
2005 Tuggeranong Regional Art Prize, Canberra
2004 Aboriginal Artist of the Year, Canberra & District NAIDOC Award
2003 artsACT - Project grant for a community research project culminating in a solo exhibition of works based on information gathered from the Gunai-Kurnai people of Gippsland, Songlines-journeys through country,
2001 ANU Emerging Artist Support Scheme Acquisitive Award sponsored by Chamberlain Law Firm
Collections
National Maritime Museum Sydney NSW
Legislative Assembly, Canberra
Parliament House ACT
National Museum of Australia, Canberra
ANU School of Art Emerging Artist Support Scheme (EASS) Loans Collection
Gary Shead private collection
Private Collections; Australia, New York, USA, UK. Finland, Sweden