
Kyra Henley (b. 1981, Gosford)
The paintings and collages of Kyra Henley are a Cargo Cult of found images washed up onto the idyllic shore of an island that has a dark jungle heart. Her use of images from dead media (old magazines, thrift store coffee table books, miscellaneous defunct encyclopaedia) is at once familiar and strange.
Her work brings to mind Caspar David Friedrich’s 19th Century targeted ad for mountain climbing ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’. Like the wanderer his mountain, the use of dated media gives the viewer the distance of time. She is lifted up and out of the churning boil of imagery created by social media and allowed to coldly survey the terrifying awe of the psychic-sublime in all its beauty.
A young girl receives a possibly problematic tennis lesson in a chic 70’s living room, two old men meet on a wind swept moor to sniff whisky and a lone wind surfer drifts towards an ominous rococo portal while lightning splits the sky. These images are slow-lookers, not the barely registered scroll fodder of your feed. Like a Zen koan they provoke a didactic doubt that has you immediately asking for core samples of the 6/7ths of the iceberg below the water.
The beauty and deeply skilled realism of her work is comforting, but her subject matter is disquieting. If you stare at a photo of a cake from a 70’s cookbook too long all the ingrained misogyny of the society that made that image begins oozing out between the icing. Her work is shamanic like that. Its beauty coddles you, rubbing your forehead while the strange jolting subject matter pours bitter psycho-actives down your gullet.
Both approaches are requisite to coax the viewer into a new and necessary understanding of that which is around them. There are few artists out there who embody the role of visual shaman with quiet aplomb. Kyra Henley is one of them.
Education
Bachelor of Fine Arts, The National Art School, Sydney
2001
Prizes, Commisions & Residencies
Mural commission, collaboration with Steve Latimer, Ella Bache Head Office, Artarmon
2011
Curwoods Lawyers Artist in Residence, Australia Square, Sydney
2010
Off the Wall: Emerging Artists, Exhibition prize at Art Sydney, Moore Park
2007
Waverley Art Prize, Winner of the Oil Painting Prize, Waverley Library, Bondi
2006
Sydney Art Cooperative Studio Prize, The National Art School, Darlinghurst
2001
Murray Sime Award, The National Art School, Darlinghurst
2001
Solo Exhibitions
Recreation II, Lilac City Studio, Surry Hills
2018
If you feel unwell don’t risk staying on the train, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
2018
Recreation, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
2016
Zetland, Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
2013
Apartment, Robin Gibson Gallery. Darlinghurst
2011
Curwoods, Australia Square, Sydney - Curwoods Lawyers artist in residence exhibition
2010
Choose your own still life, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy
2008
Selected Group Exhibitions
Since 2008 Numerous curated group shows at Robin Gibson Gallery, Darlinghurst
Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown
2019
KAAF art prize, Korean Cultural Centre, Sydney
2018
Mosman art prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Mosman
2017
Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, National Trust Centre, Millers Point
2017
LCE3, Lilac City Studio, Surry Hills
2015
Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, National Trust Centre, Millers Point
2015
Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Mosman
2014
Belle Arti Art Prize, Chapman & Bailey Gallery, Abbotsford
Waverley Art Prize, Waverley Woollahra Art School, Bondi
2013
Terrigal en plein air, Gosford Regional Gallery, Gosford
2012
Terrigal en plein air, Gosford Regional Gallery, Gosford
2011
National Trust Harpers Mansion Still Life Exhibition, Harpers Mansion, Berrima
2008
Repetition, Mary Place Gallery, Paddington
2007
The Eutick Memorial Still Life Award, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, Coffs Harbour
2007
Hazelhurst works on paper prize, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Gymea
2006
Portia Geach Memorial Award, S.H. Ervin Gallery, National Trust Centre, Millers Point
2006
Waverley Art Prize, Waverley, Woollahra Art School
2006
Bondi Poor Yorick: A collection of human skulls, Virginia Wilson Art, Darlinghurst Approaching Intimacy: Contemporary Miniatures, Ivan Doherty Gallery, Paddington
2005
Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Mosman
2005
The Painting Show, Virginia Wilson Art, Darlinghurst Lloyd Rees
2005
Youth Art Award, Lane Cove Council Chambers, Lane Cove
2005