Patricia Piccinini (b. 1965), artist, is best known for her mutant life-like creatures rendered in silicone and her iconic hot-air balloons. After graduating in Fine Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1991, Piccinini and a group of artists, including her husband Peter Hennessy, initiated the Basement Project Gallery in Melbourne. She and Hennessy have been a collaborative team since then, working out of their studio in Collingwood, Melbourne. Always beginning her creative process with drawing, Piccinini's interdisciplinary practice encompasses sculpture, installation, photography, sound and video. Her work has been represented in numerous art biennales all over the world, including the 50th Venice Biennale. When Piccinini's solo exhibition ComCiência was exhibited throughout Brazil in 2015–2016, it attracted a record-breaking 1.4 million viewers. A major survey of her work, Curious Affection, was shown at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in 2018. Commissioned for the 2013 Centenary of Canberra, her hot-air balloon Skywhale was followed by Skywhalepapa in 2021.
Allissa Oughtred took this photograph of Piccinini wearing a Romance Was Born dress in the artist's studio in Collingwood. In the background are shelves bearing some of the moulds for the creatures that inhabit her imagined worlds made real. This portrait captures the dynamic vivacity and energy of this artist whose life and practice are characterised by curiosity and a wondrous imagination.
Gift of an anonymous donor 2019
© Allissa Oughtred
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