Simryn Gill

Simryn Gill (born 1959) is a Singapore-born artist who specializes in sculpture, photography, drawing, printmaking, writing, and publishing. Throughout her career, Gill has presented her art at several significant events, including Germany's Documenta art show and the Venice Biennale. Gill is also one of Australia's most famous contemporary artists.

Early life and career Although she was born in Singapore, throughout her childhood her family moved to Malaysia, India, and the United Kingdom, the latter being where she remained throughout her young adulthood. There, she met her future husband, social anthropologist Souchou Yao, with whom she would go on to have two children with. In 1987, the family settled in Australia, where she would attend the South Australian School of Art to pursue her interest in artistic expression. However, a few months into her degree, Gill dropped out of her courses, both as a result of her pressing responsibilities to help raise two young children and her increasing dissatisfaction with the lack of novelty in her studies. Since these events, Gill's art has been exhibited in many cities worldwide, such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim, both in New York. with pieces inspired by her various homes and the influence of place. She acknowledged the irony this brought to her 2013 feature in the Australian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, saying "mine is not a representative voice—in fact, it's entirely the opposite of that possibility … Representation is a very strange notion." Red Hot (1992), a Native American headdress made from dried chilies, was made from Gill's homegrown chilies while she was completing projects from a 1950s boy scout manual with her son. This gentle incursion of the everyday into Gill's art is acknowledged in the foreword to the publication accompanying Gill's exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, in 2008–09. Director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor characterizes her as "an artist whose approach is rigorous yet sensual, conceptual yet tactile."

Gill is a systematic collector, "especially of books as objects of reverence and dispute". leaving interpretation of meaning to the viewer. In addition to this, Gill often allows these subjects of her art to be openly exposed to the degrading forces of the environment, demonstrating the inherently ephemeral nature of man-made objects. The exhibition variation of Pearls, 9 Volumes of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (2008–09), again invited visitors to touch and play with the volumes, now turned into boules-style balls. In particular, the empty spaces she deliberately places within many of her photographs and drawings manage to capture the dual fascination and apprehension that humanity holds towards the unknown.

Hugging the Shore Gill's first solo exhibition Hugging the Shore marked a return from Malaysia to Singapore. The pieces featured in the exhibition dealt with subjects including migration, the passage of time, life, death, and the decay of things. Like Leaves from the "Like Leaves" (2015) series was the most recent addition to the show. Leaves of the sea apple tree were pinned to the wall in a grid format, each cropped into a 6 centimeter wide square.

Maria's Garden collection Maria's Garden, on display in the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia during 2023-2024, is a beautiful collection of direct prints of various plants on paper. Created in 2021, Gill uses the ancient technique of nature printing to print an exact recreation of each plant in the garden. Ink is placed on a plant, paper is placed on top, then is hand pressed. This process ensures no two prints are the same. Working with curator Catherine de Zegher, Gill produced three unique works for the festival. De Zegher described the inspiration for the exhibition as "a space of negotiation between the small and the global, between nature and industry, as it reveals an understanding of the interconnectedness of all in a world in flux". This exposure of the work changed it over time, both the beach house and the art stored within it slowly being altered by the surrounding environment, emphasizing nature's ability to reclaim structures and objects constructed by humans. Museum of Modern Art, New York City San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Tate, London Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane

Solo exhibitions Source:

Gill is represented by Tracy Williams Ltd in New York City, and has held four solo exhibitions in the gallery: Blue (2014), Simryn Gill | Nicole Cherubini (2012), Holding Patterns (2010) and Interiors (2009). Simryn Gill: Stormy Days, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai (2015) Hugging the Shore, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore (2015) Here art grows on trees, Australian Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale (2013) Simryn Gill: Inland, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2009) Simryn Gill: Gathering, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2008) Tate Modern, London (2006) Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo (2004) Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2002)

Group exhibitions Source: Lasting Images, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2013) 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2013) Considering Collage, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai (2013) Untitled (12th Istanbul Biennial), Istanbul, Turkey (2011) Animism, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland (2010) Provisions for the Future, Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2010) Transmission Interrupted, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK (2010) Revolutions – Forms That Turn, Biennale of Sydney (2008) News From Islands, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown (2007) documenta 12, Kassel, Germany (2007) Living in the Material World, National Arts Centre, Tokyo, Japan (2007) Singapore Biennale (2006)