Seasons (Kangaroo). 1987 (detail) |
Adjunct Professor, SA School of Art and
Hawke Research Institute,
University of South Australia
Adjunct Professor, Department of History and Politics,
University of Adelaide
PO Box 692 Kent Town SA 5071
ian.north@internode.on.net
ian.north@unisa.edu.au
ian.north@adelaide.edu.au
MFA, MA (New Mexico); MA (Flinders); BA (Vic, Wgtn)
Ian North has exhibited widely as an artist (using photography and painting, often combined) in Sydney, London, Adelaide, as well as various locations in the United States and Asia, particularly exploring considerations of place, identity and 'the imperial eye'. He has had eleven solo shows since 1986.
Canberra No 8. 1980
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Ian was an art museum curator for fifteen years. He has curated many exhibitions of historical Australian art and contemporary art generally, including a number of photography exhibitions at the National Gallery of Australia. He has written or edited significant books on the Australian artists Dorrit Black, Margaret Preston and Hans Heysen as well as publishing in leading art journals. He has also conducted research as a complement to studio work extending from Expanse: Aboriginalities, Spatialities and the Politics of Ecstasy, an exhibition he curated for the University of SA (now Samstag) Art Museum in 1998, considering the impact of the Indigenous art revolution, interculturalism and new approaches to the landscape. Ensuing essays include 'StarAboriginality', 2001, 'Living with Chai', 2001, 'The Kindness of Kathleen Petyarre', 2001, and 'Revolution's Gift: Aboriginal Art and a New Enlightenment', 2002. Ian North's interest in issues of place and identity segued into the developing field of bioaesthetics and led to him editing the book Visual animals in 2007.
In his academic role Ian North was closely
involved with the development and management of postgraduate studies at
the
University of South Australia, acting frequently as an examiner
interstate or as an Australian Research Council grant assessor. When
he was Head of School he acted to professionalise the environment of the South
Australian School of Art, lobbying successfully to relocate it from a
suburb to the city, introducing higher degrees, establishing a
professionally run art museum in 1986 (now known as the Samstag Art
Museum), organising residencies of major artists both Australian and
international, and establishing the international Anne and Gordon Samstag Scholarship
Program. As Adjunct Professor (History and Politics Department)
at the University of Adelaide he has actively contributed to the
innovative
program in art history run jointly with the Art Gallery of South
Australia.
Ian North (ed) Visual animals, Centre for Contemporary Art, Adelaide, 2007.
Ian North, 'Spooked: art museums, photography and the problem of the real' in Daniel Palmer (ed), Photogenic: essays / images / CCP 20002004, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, 2005, pp 7181.
Christine Nicholls and Ian North, Kathleen Petyarre: genius of place, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2001. Awarded Art Association of Australia & New Zealand Prize for best Australasian art publication in 2001. Reprinted 2005.
Ian North, 'StarAboriginality' in Charles Green (ed), Postcolonial + art: where now? Artspace Visual Art Centre, Sydney, 2001. n.p. Reprinted by Hawke Research Institute, University of South Australia (Working Paper no 20), 2002, and anthologised in Klaus Stierstorfer (ed.), Return to postmodernism (Festschrift for Ihab Hassan), Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg, 2005, pp 151166.
Ian North, 'Living with Chai' in Sarah Thomas (ed), Hossein Valamanesh: a survey, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2001, pp 4874.
Ian North, Expanse: Aboriginalies, spatialities and the politics
of ecstasy, University of South Australia Art Museum, Adelaide,
1998. Exhibition catalogue and essay for inaugural exhibition of
University of South Australia Art Museum at city site. Artists: Jon
Cattapan, Rosalie Gascoigne, Antony Hamilton, Kathleen Petyarre, Imants
Tillers.
Pseudo Panorama Australia (Zebra). 1987 acrylic, Type C photographs,
38.5 x 94.5cm |
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The Wave. 2004 |
Present
Past