CURRICULUM VITAE
QUALIFICATIONS
2010-14 PhD. School of Art, Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne.
2007-8 Master of Fine Art. (First Class Honours) Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne.
2005 Bachelor of Fine Art, Honours. (First Class), Victorian College of the Arts.
2001-4 Bachelor of Fine Art, Sculpture. Victorian College of the Arts.
COMMISSIONS AND PUBLIC ART PROJECTS
2026 Permanent Public Sculpture: “Wildflowers”, Castlemaine Botanical Gardens.
2025 Exhibition Commission: “Each Human Battery” for Floating Land, site-responsive art festival in Noosa surrounds, Queensland.
2023 Exhibition Commission: “The Tolling”. Shown in street windows of Aesop QV, Lonsdale St, Melbourne.
2022 Exhibition Commission: “How do we hold these things together?” for “Art, Death and Disposal”. The Meat Market, North Melbourne, part of the DeathTech international research project.
2020 Permanent Public Sculpture: Crossley Hotel Rooftop Bar, Melbourne.
2018 Permanent Public Sculpture: United Places Boutique Hotel, South Yarra.
2018 Exhibition Commission: Science Gallery Melbourne.
2017 Permanent Public Sculpture: “Murmur”, a major animated video-based lighting sculpture for Marina Tower, Docklands. In collaboration with Jem Freeman and Like Butter.
2017 Permanent Public Sculpture: Elwood Primary School.
2013 Permanent Public Sculpture: Collaboration with Jem Freeman commissioned by Lend Lease for Hume City Council, sculptural sound installation comprising seven large tubular bells that respond to viewer movements.
2012 Permanent Public Sculpture: Commissioned to create the Horsham Highway Entrance Sculpture.
SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 “Attend”. HAIR Gallery, Melbourne.
2024 “This Fearsome Drop”. Stockroom, Kyneton.
2019 “The Unfixed”. Kings Artist Run, Melbourne.
2016 “Resonate”. Stockroom Gallery, Kyneton, and Airspace Projects, Marrickville, NSW.
2015 “Writhe”. Ararat Regional Gallery, Ararat.
2013 “Introverted”. Margaret Lawrence Gallery, VCA, Southbank.
2012 “Web”. Incinerator Gallery, Moonee Ponds.
2011 “The Saltus”. Place Gallery, Richmond.
2010 “Underwing”. Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, St Kilda.
2010 “Shimmer”. Place Gallery, Richmond.
2009 “Machina”. Seventh Gallery, Fitzroy.
2008 “Pulse”. Bus Gallery, Melbourne.
2008 “Tick”. Untitled Spaces, North Carlton.
2006 “Machine for Joy: Prototype #1”. Bus Gallery, Melbourne.
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 “Floating Land: Escape Making”. Site-responsive art festival in Noosa surrounds; artwork “Each Human Battery” shown on Noosa Coastal Boardwalk, Queensland.
2023 “Floating Land: Us and Them”. Site-responsive art festival in Noosa surrounds; artwork “How do we hold these things together?” shown in Pomona Cemetery, Queensland.
2023 “Expanded Synthesis”. Curated group exhibition at Sydenham International, Marrickville, Sydney. With Ben Denham, Vicky Browne, Joyce Hinterding, Sean O’Connell, Paul Greedy.
2023 “Of a thing that can not be put back”. Art at the Bank, Old Union Bank, Prahran.
2022 “Art, Death and Disposal”. The Meat Market, North Melbourne, part of the DeathTech international research project.
2021-3 “Experimenta Life Forms”. Australian tour, to ten regional galleries throughout Australia.
2020-2 “Systematic”. Australian regional tour, Academy Gallery Launceston, Artspace Mackay, Devonport Regional Gallery.
2018 “Aesthetica Art Prize”. York Gallery, UK. Curated prize exhibition.
2018 “Systematic”. Curated group exhibition at Plimsoll Gallery, Tasmania. With Patrick Pound, Jacob Leary, Nadège Philippe- Janon, Ian Burns, Bill Hart, Tricky Walsh, Tega Brain.
2017 “Fangled”. AirSpace Projects, Marrickville, Sydney. With Sally Clarke, Brenda Factor, Sean O’Connell.
2017 “Prime Movers”. Curated group exhibition at Incinerator Gallery, Moonee Ponds. With Daniel von Sturmer, Michael Prior, Laura Woodward, Simon MacEwan and Taree Mackenzie.
2016 “Calling Percy”. Ian Potter Museum, Melbourne. Part of Melbourne International Festival and Cultural Collisions Festival.
2014 “In Motion”. Curated by Sally Clarke, AirSpace Projects, Marrickville, Sydney.
2014 “Composing Common Worlds”. Curated by Kent Wilson, Hawthorn Town Hall Gallery.
2013 “Luminescence”. Hotel Windsor, Melbourne.
2012 “Entertaining the Environment”. Bus Gallery, Melbourne, and La Trobe Visual Arts Centre, Bendigo.
2011 “Sensory Worlds”. Inspace, Edinburgh, Scotland.
2011 “Lorne Sculpture 2011”. Lorne.
2010 “McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award”. McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin.
2009 “Tips for Anxious Gardeners”. Curated by Benedict Ernst. The Library Artspace, Fitzroy.
2009 “Convergent at 9 Yarra”. Curated by Moth Design as part of the State of Design Festival. South Yarra.
2009 “Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship Show”. Curated by Nick Vickers. COFAspace, Sydney.
2007 “McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award”. Curated by Penny Teale. McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin.
2007 “Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship Show”. Curator Nick Vickers. COFAspace, Sydney.
AWARDS, GRANTS AND RESIDENCIES
2024 Competitive Selection: Floating Land Artist Camp, Noosa, convened by Noosa Regional Gallery, facilitated by Kendal Henry (NY).
2022 Grant: Creative Victoria Creator’s Fund Grant.
2020 Winner: Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture, Rural and Regional Development Award.
2017 Residency: Arteles Residency, Finland.
2015 Highly Commended: Art Gallery NSW Studios in Paris Residency Scholarship.
2014 Grant: Australia Council Mid-Career Artist New Work Grant.
2013 Grant: Australia Council Mid-Career Artist New Work Grant.
2011 Recipient: Melbourne Research Scholarship (MRS) for PhD.
2011 Residency: Artspace Studio Residency, Artspace, Sydney.
2010 Grant: Australia Council Emerging Artist New Work Grant.
2009 Winner: Agendo Prize for Emerging Artists.
2007 Winner: Vulcan Steel Postgraduate Tutorship Award.
2007 Winner: Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists.
2007 Recipient: Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) for Masters of Fine Art.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2019 Celeste Chandler, ‘Spirit Vessels: Laura Woodward’s The Unfixed’, October 2019 (exhibition catalogue).
2017 Paul Dalgarno, ‘Laura Woodward: The Power of Public Art’, Pursuit, 2 June 2017 (interview).
2016 Barbara Bolt, Ryan Jefferies, William Seeley, Ryan Van Winkle, Kent Wilson, edited by Laura Woodward, ‘Resonate’, October 2016 (publication).
2015 Stephen Haley, ‘Drawing on Movement’, July 2015 (exhibition catalogue).
2015 Garry Westmore, ‘Kinetic and Connected: The Art of Laura Woodward’, Spook Magazine, 17 July 2015.
2013 Kent Wilson, ‘Introverted’, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, January 2013 (exhibition catalogue).
2011 Robert Nelson, ‘Thinking Along Similar Lines’, The Age, 23 November 2011 (review).
2011 ‘Find out how to write a winning grant application with Laura Woodward’, ArtsCareer July 2011 News, 13 July 2011.
2011 ‘Laura Woodward Artist Profile’, NAVA Artscareer Artist Profile, November 2011 (vodcast).
2010 Trent Walter, ‘Showcase for Emerging Talent’, Australian Art Review, Nov 2010 to Jan 2011 (review).
2010 Liza Power, ‘Top-Shelf Sculptures Elevate Artform’, The Age, 22 November 2010 (review).
2010 Nicholas Croggon, ‘The Lives of Things’, Place Gallery, August 2010 (exhibition catalogue).
2010 ‘Laura Woodward’, Artshub Artist Profile, 16 November 2010 (interview).
2009 Penny Modra, ‘Tips for Anxious Gardeners’, The Age, 6 September 2009 (review).
2007 Robert Lindsay, ‘The Third Organon’, The McClelland Sculpture Survey and Award 2007 (exhibition catalogue).
2005 Liza Power, ‘Artists Create and Live in their Own World,’ The Age, 27 September 2005.
2002 Marcella Bidinost, ‘Sculptor: Carving Out a Place in the Art World,’ The Age, 2 November 2002.
PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2017 Conference paper and peer-reviewed journal article: ‘“Calling Percy”—a model for developing value-rich parallel pedagogical and studio research projects that result in significant cultural outcomes’. ACUADS Conference, Canberra, 2017, and published on ACUADS website.
2017 Peer-reviewed journal article: ‘“Calling Percy”: A parallel pedagogical and studio research project leading to a significant cultural production’. University of Melbourne Collections, issue 20, June 2017.
2016 Symposium paper: ‘“Calling Percy”: encountering Grainger through engineering and sculptural practices’. Presented at symposium “Cultural Collisions: The Future of the Object” at the University of Melbourne.
2015 Conference paper: ‘Agential relationships of time, matter, movement and experience in system-based kinetic sculpture (using Luc Besson’s “Lucy” as a transversal testing ground)’. Presented at the conference Transversal Practices: Matter, Ecology and Relationality, the VI International Conference on New Materialisms. Also a member of the convening committee.
2014 Conference paper: ‘The Introverted Kinetic Sculpture - how it moved’. Presented at “The Oustanding Field Symposium” at VCA, delivered by DDCA.
2014 Peer-reviewed journal article: ‘Exploring Neocybernetics and New Materialisms in Contemporary Kinetic Sculptural Practice through “The Introverted Kinetic Sculpture”’, Studio Research Journal, Issue 2, June/July 2014.
2013 Conference paper: ‘Neocybernetics and New Materalisms in Contemporary Kinetic Sculptural Practice’. Presented as part of panel “The New Materialism in and through Sculpture and Spatial Practice”, convened by Associate Professor Barbara Bolt at the AAANZ “Interdiscipline” Conference, VCA, Melbourne.
2012 Book Chapter: ‘The Somatic in Kinetic Sculpture: from Len Lye to an Introverted Kinetic Sculpture (via Donna Haraway’s cyborg)’. Published in “Moving Imagination - the motor dimension of imagination in the arts”, edited by Helena de Preester, published by John Benjamins Publishing Company, June 2013.
2011 Conference artwork: “Underwing”. Presented at “Sensory Worlds: Environment, Value and the Multi-sensory”, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
2011 Conference paper: ‘The Somatic in Kinetic Sculpture. Presented at the conference “Inner Movement: the Motor Dimension of Imagination”’, Faculty of Fine Arts, University College Ghent, Belgium.
2011 Conference paper: ‘The Introverted Kinetic Sculpture’. Presented at the “Experimental Arts Conference”, The National Institute for Experimental Arts, College of Fine Arts, Sydney.
ARTS INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE
Current Lecturer in Art, VCA Art, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, the University of Melbourne (ongoing since 2015).
Current Co-owner and Designer at Like Butter, a small design/manufacturing company specialising in design, fabrication and installation services for artists, designers and architects in a range of media (ongoing since 2007).
2008-24 Owner and Manager of Ironside Studios, providing quality and affordable studio space to over 500 artists and designers from 2008 to early 2024 (closed due to building demolition for development).
2020 Presenter, ‘Experimenta Social’, live online artist talk.
2011 Presenter, ‘Art Chats’, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park.
2011 Presenter, ‘Art Forum Program’, Visual Art, Victoria University.
2010 Presenter, Art Forum, SouthWest TAFE, Warrnambool.
2009 Artist Assistant to Robert Owen.
2008 Board Member and Treasurer, Seventh Gallery, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.
2007 Presenter, ‘Talking Sculpture: Virtual Gods and Art’, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park.
2006 Artist in Residence, Caulfield Grammar School.
2001-3 Artist in Residence, Ballarat Grammar City Cite.