Joan Grounds

Joan Grounds (born 1939) is an American-born artist. She has been exhibiting in Australia and internationally from 1967. Her solo and collaborative art work is held in the National Gallery of Australia (ceramics), the National Gallery of Victoria ( both film and ceramics) and in the Powerhouse Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences (ceramics). Her hybrid practice incorporated ceramics, sculpture, sound art, film and performance art.

Joan Grounds
Born1939
Atlanta, USA
EducationBachelor of Arts (Tulane University)
Master of Arts (University of California)
Known forSculpture, ceramics, performance art, film
MovementMulti disciplinary

Early life and education

Grounds was born in Atlanta, United States, in 1939. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Tulane University in 1962 and a Master of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley in 1964.[1][2]

After meeting and marrying American/Australian artist Marr Grounds, she lived in Ghana for two years while he lectured in architecture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi.[2]

She exhibited in Ghana and the US before coming to Australia in 1968.[2]

Career

Grounds's first major installation work was a fire sculpture on a beach in Ghana in 1968, later repeated on deserted beaches in New South Wales.[1] She would continue to engage with nature in later site-specific installation work, including the "Four Quartets" in 1987-1988.

Grounds was the director of the Tin Sheds at Sydney University from 1976 to 1979, after co-founding the art workshop with her husband and Donald Brook. Grounds fostered the Tin Sheds as a vibrant hub for a diversity of politically active artists, students and the broader community and it supported many sub-groups.[2][3][4]

She taught at East Sydney Technical College[5] (later the National Art School) at that time, and later taught at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW.

Art practice

The Watter Gallery in Sydney has represented her work.[5]

Collaborations

Grounds collaborated with Aleks Danko on several performance and film projects and had a ten-year collaboration with Sherre Delys, producing sound sculpture and public art installation. Other collaborators were N.S. Harsha, Rik Rue, Margaret Dodd, Stevie Wishhart, and Jane Finlay.

Themes

"Joan Grounds' work....engages with nature, with the placement of women, with the body of women, with memory and with ways of exploring all of these." (Julie Ewington, 2001)[6]

"The installations are as formal and elusive as music. And you are the music while the music lasts." (George Alexander, 1989)[7]

Recognition
  • 2002 ASIALINK Residency, Chiang Mai, Thailand[1]
  • 1996 ASIALINK Visual Arts and Crafts residency exchange between India and Australia[1]
  • 1995 Australia Council residency, Tokyo, Japan[1]
  • 1981 Australia Council residency, Greene Street, New York[1]

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions
  • 1985 "Four Quartets" The Performance Space, Cleveland St, Sydney
  • 1997 (with N.S.Harsha) Art Gallery of NSW[1]
  • 1995 solo show, Annandale Galleries, Sydney[1]

Others

Collections

References
  1. APT (2002). "APT: Joan Grounds". Visualarts.qld.gov.au.
  2. Grounds, Marr (30 March 2015). "Interview with Marr Grounds" (transcript) (Interview). Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive: Balnaves Foundation Australian Sculpture Archive Project. Interviewed by Edwards, Deborah. Balnaves Foundation. Art Gallery of NSW. This is an edited transcript of a recorded interview.
  3. Allam, Lorena (24 June 2007). "The Hothouse: art and politics at the Tin Sheds" (audio (55 mins) + text). ABC Radio National. Hindsight. Guests include Donald Brook, Bert Flugelman, Guy Warren, Joan Grounds, Michael Callaghan, Chips Mackinolty, Marie McMahon, Jan Fieldsend, Roger Butler. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  4. "Mixed media artist, Tin Sheds artist-in-residence and Director, 1968 - 1979, Joan Grounds". ABC Radio National. 14 February 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
  5. "'Ceramic Parcel' sculptural form by Joan Grounds". collection.maas.museum. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  6. Ewington, Julie (2001). "In The Wild: Nature, Culture, Gender In Installation Art". In Geczy,A.; Gennochio, B. (eds.). What is Installation? An Anthology of Writings on Australian Installation Art. Power Publications. pp. 38–39. ISBN 978-1864874303.
  7. Alexander, George (1989). "The Dancer Snared: The Poetics of Joan Grounds". Eyeline. 09: 20–21.
  8. "Joan GROUNDS [Artist profile]". Visual Arts Queensland. Queensland Art Gallery. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  9. Grounds, Joan. "Red-green duration: from the portfolio". Item held by National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  10. "Joan GROUNDS | Artists | NGV". www.ngv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
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