Rose Nolan

Born Mel­bourne, Aus­tralia 1959

Lives and works in Melbourne

Rose Nolan works across paint­ing, instal­la­tion, sculp­ture, pho­tog­ra­phy, prints and book pro­duc­tion. Her prac­tice reg­u­lar­ly oscil­lates between the dis­crete and the mon­u­men­tal and is informed by a strong inter­est in archi­tec­ture, inte­ri­or and graph­ic design – com­bin­ing for­mal con­cerns with the lega­cies of mod­ernism. Nolan’s prac­tice is known for its inves­ti­ga­tion of the for­mal and lin­guis­tic qual­i­ties of words, direct­ly using lan­guage to trans­form the archi­tec­tur­al space they inhab­it. By mak­ing lan­guage con­crete in this way mean­ing is allowed to be approached differently.

Nolan employs a rad­i­cal­ly reduced palette of red and white, and sim­ple util­i­tar­i­an mate­ri­als and meth­ods, in an explo­ration of per­son­al, play­ful and often self-effac­ing nar­ra­tives. Each work describes a con­cern for econ­o­my; a desire to be respon­sive to site; an inter­est in seri­al­i­ty and rep­e­ti­tion; and the impor­tance of lan­guage, inter­ac­tiv­i­ty, and the expe­ri­ence of the viewer.

Nolan’s works are held in impor­tant pub­lic col­lec­tions, includ­ing: the Nation­al Gallery of Aus­tralia, Can­ber­ra; Nation­al Gallery of Vic­to­ria, Mel­bourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Syd­ney; Art Gallery of South Aus­tralia, Ade­laide; Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary Art Aus­tralia, Syd­ney; Hei­de Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, Mel­bourne; and Monash Uni­ver­si­ty Muse­um of Art.

Nolan has com­plet­ed numer­ous pub­lic art com­mis­sions, includ­ing ​‘Screen Works – ENOUGH-NOW/EVEN/­MORE-SO’, QVM Munro Com­mu­ni­ty Hub, City of Mel­bourne (2021), ​‘GIVE OR TAKE’, Monash Uni­ver­si­ty Library Caulfield Cam­pus (2017); ​‘A Big Word – HEL­LO’ (The Hel­lo House in col­lab­o­ra­tion with OOF! Archi­tec­ture), Mel­bourne (2014), ​‘It’s Okay to Be Alright’, Mel­bourne Art Trams (2013); and ​‘It’s Hard to See What This All Means’, Site One, Dock­lands, Mel­bourne (2006).

CV

Bib­li­og­ra­phy