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Biography

In a career spanning over four decades, Australian artist Rosemary Laing created photo-based work that is cinematic in vision and large in scale and scope. Instead of using digital manipulation, Laing photographed real-time performance and physical installations, meticulously staging scenes in culturally and historically resonant locations across Australia. Her work was informed by post-colonial perspectives on the occupation and ownership of land and speculates upon how the past intersects with the present situation. Laing frequently worked in series, creating thematic bodies of work that are large in scale and scope and accumulatively form an ongoing narrative of events that have impacted cultural consciousness.

Laing has participated in several international biennials including the Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2008); Venice Biennale, Italy (2007); Busan Biennale, South Korea (2004); and Istanbul Biennial, Turkey (1995). Solo exhibitions of Laing’s work have been held at numerous museums, including Domus Artium 2002, Spain; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Tennessee; Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik, Denmark; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia;

National Museum of Art Osaka, Japan; and TarraWarra Museum of Art, Australia. Her work can also be found in many public collections worldwide, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia; Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland; Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Harvard Art Museum, Massachusetts; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia; National Gallery of Australia; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; North Carolina Museum of Art; and Wadsworth Athenaeum, Connecticut. Laing was honored at the 35th Higashikawa International Photography Festival in 2019, Hokkaido, receiving the Overseas Photographer Award for photographic achievements.

Laing was born in 1959 in Brisbane, Australia, and died in 2024.

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