David Noo­nan

Born Bal­larat, Aus­tralia 1969

Lives and works in Lon­don, Unit­ed Kingdom

Encom­pass­ing col­lage, print­mak­ing, sculp­ture, film, and instal­la­tion, David Noonan’s prac­tice draws upon an exhaus­tive image archive that con­flates twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry avant garde and sub­cul­tur­al his­to­ries. Adopt­ing a method­i­cal approach to selec­tion, Noo­nan seam­less­ly ref­er­ences the­atre, film, design, archi­tec­ture, dance and music from both east­ern and west­ern cultures.

For each work, images are care­ful­ly select­ed, manip­u­lat­ed and recon­struct­ed through a non­lin­ear approach that re-presents his­to­ry as an imag­ined present. Con­cur­rent­ly, Noonan’s pro­duc­tion draws from tra­di­tion­al art and craft-mak­ing prac­tices as well as con­tem­po­rary process­es, col­laps­ing numer­ous tech­niques into intri­cate and detailed works, regard­less of medium.

Along­side his rig­or­ous research process, fig­u­ra­tion and for­mal con­sid­er­a­tions are cen­tral to Noonan’s con­struct­ed scenes. Sub­jects are often strate­gi­cal­ly soli­tary and haunt­ed, even when they appear in groups. The results emanate deeply psy­cho­log­i­cal and exis­ten­tial qualities.

David Noo­nan has recent­ly been the sub­ject of solo exhi­bi­tions at Gertrude Con­tem­po­rary, Mel­bourne, Aus­tralia (2017); the Uni­ver­si­ty of the Arts, Philadel­phia (2015); Con­tem­po­rary Art Muse­um, St. Louis (2011); Aus­tralian Cen­tre for Con­tem­po­rary Art, Mel­bourne (2009); Chisen­hale Gallery, Lon­don (2008); and Palais De Tokyo, Paris (2007). His work has been includ­ed in notable sur­vey exhi­bi­tions and bien­ni­als, includ­ing the British Art Show (2010−2011); the Bien­nale of Syd­ney (2010); the Ade­laide Bien­ni­al of Aus­tralian Art (2010); Glas­gow Inter­na­tion­al (2010); and the Tate Tri­en­ni­al (2009).

Noonan’s work is in the per­ma­nent col­lec­tions of numer­ous muse­ums, includ­ing the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Syd­ney; Nation­al Gallery of Vic­to­ria, Mel­bourne; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toron­to; Dal­las Muse­um of Art; Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary Art, Chica­go; Los Ange­les Coun­ty Muse­um of Art; Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggen­heim Muse­um, New York; and Whit­ney Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art, New York.

CV