On a clear day you can see forever
Minna Gilligan

Gertrude Contemporary was pleased to present a new Studio 12 exhibition by 2015 Studio Artist Minna Gilligan. Gilligan works primarily with painting, drawing and collage. Her practice speaks of fleeting, personal encounters with the past and present, and manifests in a tumultuous reconciliation of both. Her works are playgrounds of colour, often inhabited by lone protagonists trapped in states of longing, sadness or exhalation.

For her Studio 12 exhibition, titled On a clear day you can see forever, Gilligan presented a new body of paintings and one new digitally printed fabric, which functioned as a kind of backdrop to the paintings—turning Studio 12 into a more immersive and intimate environment. Gilligan's paintings and digital prints boast complex, all-over surfaces—an energetic admixture of brightly coloured spray paint, found fabric, photographic collage and acrylics. Her canvases swarm with linear patterns, bleached clovers, flowers and butterflies—the types of automatic doodlings that might populate a teenage girl's diary whiling away long hours at school. 

Minna Gilligan has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) from the Victorian College of the Arts. Recent solo exhibitions include: Long time no see, Daine Singer, 2014; Memory Motel, TCB Art Inc., 2014; Holiday Inn, West Space, 2013; Halos and Plateaus, Rear View, 2012; and Not in Kansas Anymore, Dudspace, 2012. Recent group exhibitions include: Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, 2013–14; The Kenneth Biennale, TCB Art Inc., 2013; PICA Salon, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, 2013; Period Piece, Ontario College of Art and Design, Canada, 2013; and No Soda, Knight Street Art Space, 2012. Gilligan also performs in the band Pamela with artists Jon Campbell and Georgina Glanville. Gilligan maintains an illustration practice as an artist for New York-based online magazine ROOKIE, as well as fashion clients, and is a member of artist collective The Ardorous, curated by Canadian photographer Petra Collins.

Minna Gilligan's Studio 12 exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue essay by Jeremy Eaton, as part of the 2015 Gertrude Contemporary Emerging Writers Program. Jeremy Eaton is mentored by Rex Butler.