ABOUT THE ARTIST
"...Woodward's works are mysterious and formally alluring. This feeling is heightened by an overwhelming sense of the organic in her mechanical inventions." - Trent Walter, Australian Art Review, Nov 2010.
Laura Woodward lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. She has been creating sculptural kinetic installations for six years. Laura's current explorations focus on the idea of an introverted kinetic sculpture. The introverted kinetic sculpture has a logic that comes from within. The system, motion and form are crucial elements of the introverted sculptures and, in the most introverted, are totally inseparable from each other. This logic both produces and is generated by the introverted sculpture.
Solo shows include "The Saltus" at Place Gallery, Richmond, in 2011, "Underwing" at Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, St Kilda, and "Shimmer" at Place Gallery, Richmond, both in 2010, as well as "Pulse" at Bus Gallery in 2008. Group exhibitions include "Sensory Worlds" at Inspace, Edinburgh, Scotland and Lorne Sculpture, both in 2011; the 2007 and 2010 "McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award", McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin; "Tips for Anxious Gardeners", the Library Artspace, Fitzroy, 2009; and "Convergence at 9 Yarra", commissioned as part of the State of Design Festival, 2009. Laura received an Australia Council Emerging Artist New Work Grant in 2010; was the winner of the Agendo Prize for Emerging Artists in 2009; and received both the Vulcan Steel Postgraduate Tutorship Award and a Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship Award in 2007. She has also been short-listed for numerous awards and commissions, including the Melbourne Fire Brigade memorial for fallen fire-fighters at Burnley and recently the Horsham Entrances Highway Sculpture Commissions. Laura completed a Masters of Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts, the University of Melbourne, in 2008, and is currently undertaking a Doctorate of Philosophy at the same institution.
Laura has taught sessionally in the Sculpture Department at RMIT University, in the Sculpture Department at Hong Kong Art School (with RMIT), and in the Sculpture and Spatial Practice Department at the Victorian College of the Arts, the University of Melbourne.
Laura also owns and manages Ironside Studios, and co-owns the design and fabrication business Like Butter.
CURRICULUM VITAE
REVIEWS, ESSAYS AND INTERVIEWS
Review: Robert Nelson, 'Thinking Along Similar Lines', The Age, 23 November 2011
Review: Trent Walter, 'Showcase for Emerging Talent', Australian Art Review, Nov 2010 to Jan 2011
Review: Liza Power, 'Top-Shelf Sculptures Elevate Artform', The Age, 22 November 2010
Review: Penny Modra, 'Tips for Anxious Gardeners', The Age, 6 September 2009
Essay: Laura Woodward, 'The Saltus', Place Gallery, November 2011
Essay: Nicholas Croggon, 'The Lives of Things', Place Gallery, August 2010
Interview: NAVA Artscareer Artist Profile (vodcast), November 2011
Interview: Artshub Artist Profile, 16 November 2010
Interview: ArtsCareer July 2011 eNews - Find out how to write a winning grant application, 13 July 2011
MASTERS OF FINE ART - PAPER
Prosthetic Propulsion: Mechanistic Sculpture and Interactive Installation, by Laura Woodward, completed October 2008 (5.5MB)
