Bio and CV

Artist Bio

Lucy Bleach’s practice focuses on humanity’s enduring relationships to volatile environments by engaging with communities that directly experience such interactions and with scientists who monitor the earth’s motion. She generates artworks where processes are informed by geological force and which anticipate their own ensuing instability and transformation. She uses her practice to investigate transitions of matter, to slow down the process of material collapse, to link global and local vibrations, and to invest in intricate acts of repair.

Lucy continues to develop a practice that spans 30 years across curated exhibitions, festival commissions, community collaborations, curatorial projects, published writing, lecture presentations and mentoring. She has produced solo commissioned and collaborative works, exhibited nationally and internationally, and undertaken research projects in geologically unstable regions in Italy, Japan, Hawaii and Vanuatu.

Curriculum Vitae

Qualifications

  • 1990    Bachelor Fine Arts, COFA, University of New South Wales
  • 2007    Master of Fine Arts, Tasmanian College of the Arts, University of Tasmania

Selected Exhibition History

  • 2022
  • on this shore. Front Beach Back Beach. Temporary Public Art Commissions. Mornington Peninsula. Curated by David Cross
  • 2021
  • by this lake. Commissioned artwork for RISING Festival. Golden Square Carpark. Melbourne. Curated by Grace Herbert
  • attenuated ground (the slow seismogenic zone). TarraWarra Biennial. TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria. Curated by Nina Miall
  • brothers. Composing Archipelagos. Contemporary Art Tasmania. Curated by Jasmin Stephens
  • rueremus. Commissioned artwork for Mona Foma 2021. Hobart
  • 2020
  • call and response (the slow seismogenic zone). Process-based experimentation with Wendy Morrow and Jon Smeathers
  • sampling (the slow seismogenic zone). The Habitat of Time. Arts Catalyst Gallery. London. Curated by Julie Louise Bacon
  • 2019
  • dark mirror. Women’s Art Prize Tasmania. Finalist
  • acts of care. Visual dramaturgy with choreographer and dancer Sofie Burgoyne. Tasdance
  • 2018
  • variations on an energetic field. The Unconformity Festival, Queenstown
  • phase transition. The Return, curated by Stevie S. Han. Dark Mofo.
  • 2017
  • something more solid. Remanence, Ten Days on the Island Festival, Domain House, Tasmania
  • 2016
  • night garden (Triabunna and Hobart). Live Site Catalyst for Dark Mofo
  • 2015
  • underground. Contemporary Art Tasmania Solo Commission. Contemporary Art Tasmania, Hobart
  • superslow. Tasmanian International Arts Festival, Salamanca Arts Centre. Hobart
  • remote viewing. Performing Mobilities, the Australian cluster contribution to the PSI 2015 project Fluid States
  • radiant heat. Dark Mofo, Hobart
  • horizontal slowness. Collaboration with Narelle Jubellin. Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize, Sydney.
  • 2014
  • airfall. Witness. Linden Gallery, Melbourne. Curator Kit Wise.
  • crymeariver. Collaborative project with John Vella. Heavy Metals Project, Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania
  • 2013
  • dirty big whole. Collaborative project with John Vella. Constance A.R.I. Hobart
  • unfinished business. You, Me and Every Space We Know. Outward Gallery, Launceston.
  • lag. Augmentor, Outward Gallery, Launceston.
  • homeopathy. Domain – a Contested Landscape, Ten Days on the Island Festival, Domain House, Tasmania
  • 2012
  • the third space. In collaboration with Narelle Jubelin, CWA Art projects, Hobart. Curated by Paula Silva
  • 2011
  • local colour. Devonport Regional Gallery Solo Commissioned Exhibition
  • homing. Iteration Again. Hobart.  Curated by
 David Cross
  • volcano lover. Star/Dust Contemporary Art Solo Commission, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
  • 2010
  • GREENhorn. Green, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart.
  • 2009
  • oral Fibre, 4th Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan
  • blue peter. Immense Views, Innovators 3, Linden Gallery, Melbourne
  • drawn. Trust, Ten Days on the Island Festival, Clarendon House, Evandale, Tasmania
  • 2008
  • municipality. KINGS A.R.I., Melbourne
  • revues des deux mondes. INFLIGHT Gallery, Hobart
  • nature is a language can’t you read. Companion Planting, CAST Gallery, Hobart. Curator Jack Robins
  • 2007
  • circumnarrative. an other place, Long Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre, Ten Days on the Island Festival. Curator Sean Kelly
  • reserved. Port Arthur Project, Port Arthur Historic Site, Ten Days on the Island Festival

Selected Curatorial Projects
2022    Boundaries. Tess Campbell and Sam Mountford. Contemporary Art Tasmania
2019    ¢ompo$t. Dark Mofo and Constance ARI. Co-curated with Nadege Philippe-Janon
2012    FOREPLAY. Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart. Co-curated with Geoff Parr
2010    Green. Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart. Co-curated with Geoff Parr and Rebecca Stevens
2009    Lust for Life. Contemporary Arts Tasmania

Selected Residencies
2020    Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto; Japan
2014    Stromboli Volcano; Herculaneum; British School in Rome, Italy
2012    Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, United States
2010    Mt Yasur Volcano, Vanuatu
2009    Echigo Tsumari region, Japan.

Awards/Commissions/Grants


  • 2020   Resilience: Create Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
  • 2017    Artist Investment Grant (Individual), Arts Tasmania
  • 2017    Tasmanian Community Fund, Live Site Catalyst
  • 2015    OLT Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, Federal Office for Learning and Teaching
  • 2015    Ian Potter Arts funding, Midlands Restoration Project. Tasmania
  • 2012    Skills and Development Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
  • 2011    Star/Dust Contemporary Art Commission. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery/Detached
  • 2010    Qantas Award for Contemporary Arts

  • 2010    New Work Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
  • 2009    Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan
  • 2009    Asialink Visual Arts Residency, Japan
  • 2008    Professional Development Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
  • 2008    New Work Grant, Arts Tasmania
  • 2005    Australian Postgraduate Award, University of Tasmania
  • 2004    Professional Development Grant, Arts Tasmania
  • 1992    Professional Development Grant, Australia Council for the Arts

Academic engagement / Mentorship / Committees

  • 2022                 SITUATE 22-23 provocateur
  • 2022                 Mentor in Residence. Visual Bulk
  • 2021                 SITUATE provocateur
  • 2019                 SHOTGUN mentor. Contemporary Art Tasmania
  • 2007 – 2019     Lecturer, University of Tasmania
  • 2016 – 2017     Art Committee member, Glenorchy Art and Sculpture Park (GASP).
  • 2012 – 2016     Peer assessor for the Visual Arts Board, Australia Council
  • 2013 – 2017     Heavy Metal Project Committee member, MONA
  • 2006 – 2012     Program Committee member, Contemporary Art Tasmania