Photograph by Joe Brennan.Anna May Kirk
Anna May Kirk is an multi-disciplinary artist, curator and creative producer based on Gadigal land in Sydney, Australia.
Anna May Kirk’s practice explores how environments transform over deep geological and human historical time, and how this change is experienced. Addressing matters of ecological concern, Kirk’s works make tangible the many processes of environmental transformation that act upon temporal and geographic scales beyond the human sensorium. Often exploring historical and current climatic events, industries of extraction and instruments of measurement, Kirk critically interrogates cultural traditions of perceiving, measuring, representing and engaging with the natural world.
Kirk creates ‘living sculptures’ employing materials that are open to their changing environments, such as the crystalising 19th-century chemical composition of a storm glass, oxidizing copper, and glass. The materiality of climate change is embedded as active agents within Kirk’s works, she is currently experimenting with volcanic sand from Mt Tambora, a site of historical climate catastrophe, UV light, Pacific Ocean water and extreme heat. Kirk prioritises the non-ocular senses, using scent to hybridise the micro and macro scales impacted by environmental change. In doing so, Kirk’s artworks act as conduits through which the intangible can become visible.
In 2024, Kirk was awarded the Christine and Stephen Procter Fellowship and Clitheroe Emerging Sculptor Mentorship. In the same year she exhibited work with Cement Fondu, North Sydney Art Prize, Ames Yavuz, QUT Art Museum for the International Symposium for Electronic Art, and co-curated Garden at the End of Time at Tin Sheds Gallery. Kirk has held solo exhibitions at Firstdraft, Verge Gallery and Mosman Art Gallery, and exhibited work with galleries and museums across Australia including Powerhouse Museum, PICA Perth and Casula Powerhouse. She was awarded Highly Commended in the Valerie Taylor Art Prize and has undertaken residencies with City of Sydney, Blindside, and Parramatta Artist Studios, as well as an upcoming residency with the Satellite Institute in Norway, where she will develop a major new body of work. Kirk is currently a Program Curator at Powerhouse Museum and has curated projects taking the form of exhibitions, festivals and digital projects. In 2021, Kirk founded Supper Sessions, a grassroots arts funding initiative raising independent grants for artists through community dinners. Kirk holds First Class Honours from Sydney College for the Arts and a Bachelor of Visual Arts from UNSW Art & Design.
I work on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and pay my deepest respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Projects
Solo exhibitions:
The Fall
Cement Fondu
October - December 2024
Double Parallax
Mosman Art Gallery
Collaborative presentation with Meng-Yu Yan
September - December 2023
Year Without a Sun
Firstdraft
February - March 2023
Forecasting the touch of change
Verge
August - September 2022
Select group exhibitions:
Sculpture by the Sea
2024
Dreamscapes
Ames Yavuz
2024
North Sydney Art Prize
2024
Valerie Taylor Art Prize
Carriageworks
2023
Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Scholarship
SCA Galleries
2023
Hatched
PICA
May - July 2023
New Art 23
Delmar Gallery
February - March 2023
Eucalyptusdom
Powerhouse Museum
July 2021 - May 2022
The Moon’s New Fury
KINGS
April - May 2022
Australian Fashion Week for Jordan Gogos
Carriageworks
June 2021
Saplings
Stanley Street Gallery - curated by Emma Pinsent
April - May 2021
RightHere/RightNow
Sit Gallery - curated by Violette Kirton
February 2020
One Past Liverpool
Casula Powerhouse - curated by Luke Letourneau
September - October 2019
Slurp
PACT for March Dance - curated by Mikaela Stafford and Carla Zimber
March 2019
Speculative Futures
Firstdraft
October 2017
Me Time
Centre for Contemporary Art Canberra - curated by Sabrina Baker
June 2017
Capiche
aMBUSH gallery - curated by Josh Bentley
September 2016
Squiggle Space gallery launch
Squiggle Space - curated by James Gatt
May 2016
Desire Lines (01)
Alexandria - curated by Seb Henry-Jones and Maeve Parker
April 2016
Creative Corner Festival
Curated by James Gatt
December 2015
Stills
Gaffa Gallery
August 2015
SPI
AD Space
August 2015
The Ladies #2
District 01 - curated by Lara Vrkic
August 2015
Passionfruits
Gaffa Gallery
March 2015
Contemporary's Contemporaries
The Rocks Pop-up Space - curated by Elyse Goldfinch and Eloise Cato
December 2014
Education
University of Sydney
Bachelor of Advanced Studies (First Class Honours)
2021 - 2022
Uni Arts Helsinki
Curating in Performing Arts (Short Course)
2020
UNSW Art and Design
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Deans List)
2014 – 2019
Museum of Contemporary Art
Business Administration Traineeship - Certificate III
2014 –2015
Honours
Clitheroe Foundation Emerging Sculptor
2024
Christine and Stephen Procter Fellow
2024
Residencies
Blindside Regional Art + Research Mooramong Residency
Facilitated by Blindside Gallery, Melbourne
2020
Performance Space Queer Nu Werk workshops
Facilitated by Performance Space, Sydney
2019
City of Sydney Live/Work Creative Residency
Facilitated by The City of Sydney, Sydney
2018-2019
Photograph for the Sydney Morning Herald by James Brickwood.Curatorial Projects
Garden at the End of Time
Tin Sheds Gallery
June - July 2024
Radical Slowness
The Lock Up
March - May 2022
Supper Sessions
107 Projects
Launched January 2021
suppersessions.com.au
Collective
Collective: Frenzy
Presented with Art Month at Firstdraft March 2021
Collective: Ghost
Presented with Outer Space ARI November 2020
Collective: Trace
Presented with PACT July 2020
Becoming With
Tributary Projects, Canberra
September 2019
Movement Lab
AD Space
February 2019 - Present
Body To Bodies
The Cube at Oxford Art Factory
September – October 2018
Down / Under Space
Founding Curator
February – July 2017
AfterpARTY
Freda’s
Co-curated with Nerida Ross
February 2016 – June 2017
Artbank Social Club
Artbank
Co-curated with Kimberly Moulton, Leuli Eshraghi and Miriam Kelly
November 2016
BAD Music and Art Festival
The Factory Theatre
October 2016
MCA Social All That Glitters
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Co-curated with Nerida Ross
October 2016
In Motion Festival
AirSpace Projects
October 2016
September Issues (AW16)
Squiggle Space
Co-curated with Yarran Gatsby
September 2016
FreeFall Guest Curator
The Cube at Oxford Art Factory
June – July 2016
ART / WORK
Kudos Gallery
May 2016
Photograph by Joe Brennan.Roles
Present
Powerhouse Museum Program Curator
April 2024 - Present
Past
Powerhouse Museum Creative Producer
February - March 2024
Powerhouse Museum Digital Producer
November 2022 - February 2024
Cement Fondu Assistant Director
January 2022 - December 2022
Powerhouse Museum Program Producer
February 2021 - November 2022
FBi Radio Art and Culture Executive Producer
February 2018 – April 2021
FBi Radio Executive Producer
CANVAS: Unframing Art & Ideas
November 2019 – April 2021
AD Space Gallery Coordinator
March 2018 – March 2021
Australian Design Centre Program Assistant
November 2018 – April 2021
The Bearded Tit Art Curator
January 2018 – January 2020
Underbelly Arts Administration and Marketing Coordinator
February – October 2017
Down / Under Space Founding Curator
October 2016 – July 2017
UNSW Art & Design Arc Writers Coordinator
January - December 2016
FBi Radio Arts and Culture Editor
January 2016 - February 2018
Black Eye Gallery PR and Marketing ManagerNovember 2015 - November 2016
4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art Curatorial Research Intern
November 2015 – January 2016
Alaska Projects Marketing and Digital Intern
October 2015 – October 2016
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia Business Administration Trainee
June 2014 – June 2015
Panels
SXSW
Speaker
2023
Curate Your City
Speaker
2023
Arts Front Under 30 Conference
Delegate
2018
Biennale of Sydney Archive Salons
Speaker
2018
Museum and Galleries NSW Artchat
Speaker
2017