Peter Kennedy has been acknowledged as an exceptional, influential experimenter of art forms and content since early 1970. His experimentation with diverse media produced some of the earliest exhibitions in Australia of works using sound, video, film, performance and conceptualism as primary expressive elements that have continued to move through his practice over the years.
Peter Kennedy
Kennedy's Gallery A solo exhibition was the first to present neon works in Australia. At the same time he was co-founding the artist-run Inhibodress Gallery (late 1970 to late 1972) where his experimentation with diverse media produced some of the earliest exhibitions in Australia of works using sound, video, film, performance and conceptualism as primary expressive elements that have continued to move through his practice over the years. By the late 1970s Kennedy had added photography, drawing and sculpture, and later, architectural interventions. Instigating significant dematerialised art exchange exhibitions at Inhibodress marked Kennedy’s entry into international artist networks across Europe, the US and Latin America.
In his current project-driven art-making – both commissioned and self- initiated – he takes on personal trajectories and socio-political concerns – often set against large-scale narratives from history or geography. Alternatively, he writes quirky, personal stories. These are essentially text-based works – the stories entering into an expressive synthesis when combined with moving or still visual imagery (video and photography).
Kennedy is rightly regarded as one of the most significant artists of his generation. He has been an innovator for five decades, from early experimentation through to art which reflects deeply on the most profound issues of the time.
Kennedy’s work has been collected by numerous museums – including, in Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of NSW; and elsewhere the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Tate Gallery, ICA London, and the National Gallery of Canada. Major surveys of Peter Kennedy’s art have been held at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne (2002), and Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art (2011). Kennedy lives in Melbourne, Australia.
- Born 1945, Brisbane, Queensland. Lives and works Melbourne, Victoria.
Solo Exhibitions
2021
- Other Than Art's Sake, Milani Gallery, Brisbane (screening)
2019
- There Then Here Now, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2016
- Resistance, AEAF, Adelaide
2015
- ListenHear, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2011
- Peter Kennedy: Light years, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
- Peter Kennedy, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2008
- ONETWOTHREEFOUR (gumtrees), Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
2003
- And – an illumination, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
2002
- Peter Kennedy: Selected Works 1970 to 2002, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne
1998
- Requiem: for Ghosts, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
1996
- Requiem: Choruses from the North and South, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
1995
- AJK at the Wall of Ghosts: Watercolours by Peter Kennedy, Sutton Gallery,
Melbourne
1993
- Chorus: From the Breath of Wings, Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial, Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne
- Transformations, Gold Coast Art Gallery, Gold Coast, University Art Museum,
University of Queensland, Brisbane; Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney
1992
- Transformations (work in progress), Lismore Regional Gallery, Lismore
- Of Maps and Men: From the Secret World of Memory, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
1990
- Nature Speaks, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
- The Glasshouse Mountains, watercolours, John Buckley, Melbourne
- Inhibodress 1970 – 1972, Tim Johnson, Peter Kennedy, Mike Parr, touring
exhibition; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Perth Institute of Contemporary
Art, Perth; Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide; University of Melbourne Art
Gallery, Melbourne
1988-89
- The Stars Disordered, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, Bicentennial touring exhibition; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Devonport Art
Gallery, Devonport; Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide;
Undercroft Gallery, Perty; University Art Museum, University of Queensland,
Brisbane; The Centre Gallery, Gold Coast; Power Gallery, University of Sydney;
Wollongong City Gallery, Woollongong; Orange City Gallery, Orange; Canberra
Contemporary Art Gallery, Canberra
1989
- Nature Speaks, John Buckley, Melbourne
- Popular Front, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
1988
- Tantawangalo Landscapes, John Buckley, Melbourne
1987
- The Stars Disordered (drawings), University Art Museum, University of
Queensland, Brisbane
1986
- Istoria, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, Centre for the Arts, University of
Tasmania, Hobart
1981
- November Eleven, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes
- Installations No’s. 1 & 2, Ewing Gallery, University of Melbourne
- Installation No. 1, Praxis, Fremantle
- Installation No’s. 1 & 2, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
1976
- Two Contemporary Artists: Peter Kennedy and John Nixon, National Gallery of
Victoria - Introductions, Institute of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Experimental Art
Foundation, Adelaide
1973
- Peter Kennedy and Mike Parr, Gallerie Media, Neachatel, Switzerland
- Peter Kennedy and Mike Parr, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax; A Space Gallery, Toronto
1972
- Trans Art 1 – Idea Demonstrations, Peter Kennedy and Mike Parr, Inhibodress,
Sydney
197
- Luminal Sequences, Gallery A, Sydney
- But The Fierce Blackman, Inhibodress, Sydney
1970
- Neon-light Installations, Gallery A, Sydney
- Tim Johnson and Peter Kennedy, Gallery A, Sydney
1964
- The Johnston Gallery, Brisbane
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022
- Courage and Beauty: the James C. Sourris A.M Collection, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
2021
- A Year in Art: Australia 1992, TATE Modern, London
2020
- Music of Spheres, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
2019
- Minimalism: Space. Light. Object., National Gallery of Singapore, Singapore
2017
- I Can See Russia From Here, TCB, Melbourne
- Red Green Blue: A History of Australian Video Art, Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane
2016-17
- Dissenting Voices, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
2015
- Art as a Verb, Artspace, Sydney
- See you at the Barricades, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Luminous, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
2014
- Art as a verb, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne (touring)
2013
- Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2012
- Negotiating this World: Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Less is More, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
2011
- Ten Years of Contemporary Australian Art: The James C. Sourris AM Collection, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
2009
- Sweet Spot, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne
Gallery A Sydney 1964 – 1983, Campbelltown Arts Centre; Newcastle Regional
Gallery - Neon-light installations (reproduction), MCA/Westfield, Sydney, Hoarding, CBD,
Sydney
2008-09
- My Favourite Australian, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, with the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
2008
- Figuring Landscapes: artists, moving image from Australia and the UK, Catherine
- Elwes (ed), the International Centre for Fine Art Research and Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, London
2007
- The far side of the moon, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin
- Reveries: photography and mortality, touring exhibition. National Portrait
Gallery Canberra; University Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane;
Mornington Peninsular Regional Gallery, Mornington - The weight of history, Switchback Gallery, Monash University, Gipssland
2006
- Light Sensitive: Contemporary Australian Photography from the Loti Smorgon Fund, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV, Melbourne
2005
- Recent Acquisitions, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Unscripted, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- New Acquisitions In Context, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
- Big Bang – destruction and creation in the 20th century art, Musee Nationale
d’Art Moderne, Paris
2002
- Meridian: Focus on contemporary Australian Art, MCA, Sydney
2001
- Lightness of Being: Contemporary Photographic Art from Australia, Monash
University Museum of Art, Melbourne - Resonance: Sound and Vision, (organised by Griffith Artworks, Griffith
University), State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
2000
- Zeitgenossische Fotokunst aus Australien, Museum Schloss Hardenberg, Velbert, Kunstsammlung Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Kulturzentrumder Stadt Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Murer Berliner Kunstvereun, Berlin, Germany.
1999
- Signs of Life, Melbourne International Biennial, Melbourne
- Commissioned Artworks, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
- Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin 1950’s – 1980’s, Queens Museum of Art,
New York, Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, Miami Art Museum, Miami - What John Berger Saw, ANU Canberra School of Art Gallery, Canberra and touring Orange Regional Gallery, Orange, University of South Australia Museum of Art; Adelaide, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, John Curtin Gallery; Perth; IMA, Brisbane
1997
- Australian Drawings from the Gallery’s Collection, Art Gallery of New South
Wales, Sydney - The Real Thing, Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne
1994
- Pulse Friction, Centre for the Arts, University of Tasmania, Hobart
Kedumba Drawing Award, Blue Mountrains Grammar School, Blackheath, New South Wales - 25 Years of Performance Art in Australia, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
Faciality, Monash University Gallery and Victorian regional gallery tour
1993
- Luminaries, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne
- In the spirit of Fluxus, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, touring United States of America and Spain
1992
- Contemporary Australian Drawings (from the collection), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1991
- Off The Wall In The Air, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
- Inaugural Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
- Artist and Aspects of the Contemporary Art Society, Queensland Branch, Brisbane City Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Brisbane
1990
- Irony, Humour and Dissent, touring exhibition, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery,
Ballarat, Moree Plains Art Gallery, Moree
1989-90
- Satellite Cultures, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
1989
- Manly Art Gallery and Museum, Sydney; Monash University Gallery, Melbourne
- Australianarama, Centre for the Arts, University of Tasmania, Hobart
1988
- Other Landscapes, United Artists Gallery, Melbourne
- 6th French-Chilean Video Festival, Santiago, Chile
1985
- Queensland Works 1950-1985 Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, University Art
Museum, University of Queensland
1984
- Private Symbol, Social Metaphor, 5th Biennale of Sydney Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1983
- D’un Autre Continent: l’Austrlie, la Reve et la Reel, Peter Kennedy with John
Hughes, ARC, Musee d’Art Muderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
1982
- Eureka! Artists from Australia, Peter Kenedy with John Hughes, Institute of
Contemporary Art, London
1981
- Australian Perspecta, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1981-82
- Recent Australian Video Tapes, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, tour of Japan and major Australian centres
1980
- Videotapes dall’ Australia, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, Venice Biennale
- Video Mayfair, Peter Kennedy with John Hughes, Sydney Filmmakes Co-op
1979
- European Dialogue, Third Biennale of Sydney, Peeter Kennedy with John Hughes, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1977
- Illusion & Reality, all state galleries
1975
- Performance, Documents, Film, Video, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1973
- Recent Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1972
- Summer Festival Exhibition, Reyjkavik, Iceland
- Action Film Video, Galerie Impact, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Notes and Score for Sounds, Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco
1971
- Activities, Inhibodress, Sydney
- I want to leave a nice well done child here (20 Australian Artists), Bonython Gallery, Sydney
1970
- CAS Annual Exhibition, Farmers Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
1967
- Australian Young Contemporaries, Argus Gallery, Melbourne
1965
- Young Contemporaries, Farmers Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
Residencies, Awards, Grants
1994
- Visual Arts/Crafts Board, Australia Council Fellowship
1996
- Earthwatch Fellowship, Papua New Guinea
Public Collections
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide,
- Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
- Crown Limited, Melbourne
- Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland
- Griffith University, Brisbane
- Institute of Contemporary Art, London
- John Wardie Architects, Melbourne
- Kedumba Drawing Prize Collection, Blue Mountains Grammar School, New South Wales
- Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
- Nepean Collection, School of Contemporary Art, University of Western Sydney
- Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
- RACV, Melbourne
- Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
- Tate Gallery, London
- University of Queensland Art Museum, University of Queensland, Brisbane
- National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
- Private Collections
Selected Bibliographies
- Beilharz, P. ‘Departures and Arrivals’, ex. Cat, Requiem for Ghosts, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 1998
- Bellamy, L. ‘In the end was the word’, The Age, 21 February, 1998
- ‘Portrait of the artist as a survivor’, The Age, 30 April 2002
- Briers, D. ‘In Australia I will…’, Pages, London, 1971
- Bromfield, D. Identities A Critical Study of the work of Mike Parr 1970 – 1990, University of Western Australia Press, Perth, 1991
- Brook, D. ‘Sydney Commentary: New Art in Australia’, Studio International, London, Vol181, No930, pp76-80, Feb 1971
- ‘Idea Demonstrations: body art and ‘video freaks’ in Sydney’, Studio International, London, Vol185, No956, pp269-273, 1973
- Cramer, S. Interview, Inhibodress 1970-72, ex. Cat. Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1989
- Crombie, I. ‘Here and Now: Contemporary Australian Photography in Australia’, Light Sensitive – Contemporary Australian Photography from the Loti Smorgon Fund, ex. Cat. The Ian Potter Centre: NGV :A, Melbourne
- De Groen, G. Conversations with Australian Artists, Quartet, Melbourne, 1978
Engberg, J, ‘AND’, ex. Cat., Requiem for Ghosts, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 1998 - Fridemanis, H. Artists and Aspects of the Contemporary Art Society, Queensland Branch, ex. Cat., Brisbane City Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Brisbane, 1991
- Green, C. ‘Luminaries’, Art and Text, 47, 1994
- Geczy, A & Genocchio, B. ’What is Installation? : An anthology of writings on Australian installation art”, Power Publications, Sydney 2001
- Hall, B. Popular Front, ex. Cat., Coolaroo West Community Houses Inc., Melbourne, 1991
- Hansen, D.(ed) ‘Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial’ ex. Cat., Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial, Melbourne, 1993.
- Hendricks, J. Fluxus Codex: The Gilbert & Lily Silverman Collection, Detroit, Michigan, in association with Harry N. Abrams Inc., Publishers, New York, 1988
- Holmes, J. Peter Kennedy’s Istoria, ex. Cat., Centre For The Arts, University of Tasmania, 1986
- Jones, S. Participation TV: Notes on a Early Australian Video Art’, Video Logic, MCA, 2008
- Kennedy, P. ‘Inhibodress – Just For The Record’, Art Network, 1982
- ‘The Exhibition: Different Approaches’, Craft Council of Australia Conference Papers, Craft Council of Victoria, 1979
- ‘Sydney University Art Workshop, Post 1984’, Discussion Paper, Parts 1, 2, 3, 1984
- ‘The Visual Arts, Community Arts and Visual Arts Education, A Long Term View – Towards 2000’, Victorian Ministry for the Arts, 1986
- Kirby, S. ‘Directions in Australian Radical Art: Affirmation and Opposition’, Art/Network, Summer/Autumn, Sydney, 1982
- Lippard, L. (ed) Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object, Studio Vista, London, 1973
- Lippard, L. Reconsidering the Object of Art 1965 – 1975, MIT, 2000
- ‘Out of Control: Australian Art on the Left’, Village Voice, New York, Oct, 1982
- Get the Message – Activist Essays n Art ad Politics, Dutton, New York, 1984
- Marsh, A. Body and Self: Performance Art in Australia 1969 – 1992, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1993
- ‘Unmapped: The political dialogue of an artist’, Globe E-Journal, Issue 8, 1998
- ‘Peter Kennedy: Poetics, politics, and a silent music’. Interview, Globe E-Journal, Issue 8, 1998
- ‘Requiem, Chorus – Peter Kennedy’s Millennium Opus’, Eyeline, No. 36, 1998
- ‘Peter Kennedy An Avant-Garde Practice’, ex.cat, Peter Kennedy: Selected Works 1970 – 2002, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, 24 April – 30 June, 2002
- ‘The Medium as Ghost: Politics, and Poetics in Peter Kennedy’s work’, in Hilda Van Gelder and Helen Westgeest (eds.), Photography between Poetry and Politics: The Critical Position of the Photographic Medium in Contemporary Art, Leuven University Press, Belgium, 2008
- Mateer, J. ‘Peter Kennedy Selected Works 1970 – 2002’, Art Monthly, #151, July 2002
- Miles, M. ‘Peter Kennedy: Urban Illuminations’, Eyeline, #52, 2003
- Murray, J. ‘Australia’, Art and Artists, November 1972
- Murphy, B. Lightness of Being: Contemporary Photographic Art from Australia, ex. cat., Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
- Murphy, J. ‘Gallery A, Sydney, 1964 – 1983’ exhibition catalogue, Campbelltown Arts Centre and Newcastle Regional Gallery, 2009
- Nelson, R. ‘Australia’s Renaissance of Drawing – The Rebirth of the Pictorial Face?’, Arena, Melbourne, Dec 1992, Jan 1993
- Plant, M. ‘Peter Kennedy’, Meridian: Focus on contemporary Australian art, ex. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
- Phipps, J. Off The Wall in the Air, ex. cat., Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 1991
- Scarlett, K. ‘Melbourne, Australia. Peter Kennedy, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art’. Sculpture, Washington, October, 1998.
- Sheridan, N. Data Arte, 19, Nov/Dec 1975, Milan, Italy.
- Smith, B. Australian Painting 1788-1990, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1991
- ‘Peter Kennedy. Chorus: From The Breath of Wings’, ex. cat. Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne, 1993
- Smith , T Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950’s – 1980’s, ex. cat, Queens Museum of Art, New York, 1999
- Underhill, N. ‘Art on the Agenda’, Praxis M, no. 16, Perth, 1987
- ‘Peter Kennedy: Breaking down the Barriers’, Art & Australia
- Vivian, H.(ed) When you think about Art: the Eging and George Paton Galleries 1971 – 2000, Macmillan, Melbourne, 2008
- Walking, L. ‘Peter Kennedy: In Conversation’. Photofile, #66, September 2002, published by Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney.
- Zurbrugg, N. ‘Inhibodress 1970-72’, Art + Text, #35, Summer 1990
Documentaries
- This is Modern Art – Hollow Laughter, Channel 4 Television Corporation UK 1999
- Other than Art’s Sake, series of interviews with Steve Willats, Hans Haacke, Judy Chicago, Arlene Raven, Adrian Piper, David Medalla, Charles Simonds, and Ian Breakwell, 1973
Selected Catalogues
- Peter Kennedy: Light Years 1970-1, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane 2011
- Video Logic, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 2008
- Light Sensitive – Contemporary Australian Photography from the Loti Smorgon Fund, ex. cat. The Ian Potter Centre: NGV : A, Melbourne, 2006
- Peter Kennedy: Selected Works 1970 – 2002, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 2002
- Lightness of Being: Contemporary Photographic Art from Australian, ex. cat. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany 2001
- What John Berger Saw, ex. cat., ANU Canberra School for Art, Canberra, 2000
- Signs of Life, ex. cat., Melbourne International Biennial, Melbourne, 1999
- Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s – 1980s, ex.cat, Queens Museum of Art, New York, 1998
- Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial. Vols 1&2, ex. cat, Fifth Australian Sculpture Triennial, Melbourne, 1993
- Luminaries, ex. cat., Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 1993
- Off the Wall In The Air, ex. cat, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 1991
- Inhibodress 1970 – 1972, ex. cat., Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1989
- Fluxus Codex: The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection; ex. cat., in association with Harry N Abrams Inc Publishers, New York, 1988
- The Stars Disordered, ex.cat, University Art Museum, University of Queensland, 1988
- Private Symbol, Social Metaphor, ex.cat, Fifth Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, 1984
- D’un autre Continent: l’Australie le reve et le reel, ex. cat., Musee dart Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, 1983
- Eureka! Artists from Australia, ex. cat., ICA/Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1982
- Australian Perspecta, 1981, ex. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1981
- European Dialogue, ex. cat., Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, 1979
- Flash Art, Milan, Hune/July, 1979
- Illusion and Reality, ex. cat, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1977
- Recent Australian Art, ex. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1973
