Kate Beynon

Kate Beynon (born 9 September 1970 in Hong Kong) is a contemporary Australian artist based in Melbourne. Her work addresses ideas of transcultural life, feminism, and notions of hybridity in today’s world.[1] She is known for her depictions of the Chinese heroine Li Ji, who is situated in a modern context. Through Li Ji, Beynon explores a hybrid Australian existence and a sense of belonging within a mixed and multi-layered identity.[2] Beynon is currently doing a PhD in Fine Art by Research at Monash University.

Early life and education

Beynon was born to a Chinese-Malaysian mother and a Welsh father in Hong Kong. Her family emigrated from Hong Kong in 1974 and settled in Melbourne, Australia. She attended the University of Melbourne in 1989 and graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1993 with a BFA.[3]

Career

Beynon graduated from Melbourne’s Victorian College of Arts in 1993, and has held over 25 solo exhibitions. Beynon has participated in-group exhibitions internationally. She has also participated in major feminist art shows, including Global Feminisms (2007) and The F Word, Contemporary Feminist Art in Australia (2014). In 1995, Beynon travelled to Beijing to study Mandarin. While she was there, she discovered the story of Li Ji through a Chinese/English language textbook. In 2004, Beynon was awarded with the Professional Development Grant from the Visual arts funds of Australia council for a residency in Harlem, New York. She was also granted the Arts Victoria, International Program in 2012 to exhibit in India. Beynon has been a seven-time Archibald Prize finalist in 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2017[4] Beynon is represented by Sutton Gallery in Melbourne, where she has been exhibiting since 1996, and Milani Gallery in Brisbane. Beynon’s work is included in public collections across the world.[5]

Artwork

Having immigrated to Australia at the age of four, Beynon experienced a hybrid world of two cultures. Beynon’s work is centered on her mixed heritage as an Australian with Welsh, English, Chinese, Malaysian, and Norwegian ancestry. Her art’s narratives are inspired by ancient Chinese myths, which she adapts and situates in the modern world.[6] At the start of her career, she experimented with Chinese calligraphy, questioning the notions of race and culture within her own family. Beynon also implements Eastern (manga) and Western comic book styles as a visual genre, and modern graffiti. Her interest in writing as an art form stems from her grandfather, who was a calligrapher and the last person in her family to read and write Chinese. Her first work, "the foolish old man moves the mountain", is a story taken from her grandfather’s book.[7]

Li Ji

Starting from 1996, Beynon’s work revolved around a fictional character named Li Ji. The character is a heroine adapted from Chinese mythology, who has been transformed to examine hybridity and race.[8] The myth itself is an ancient Chinese story written by Gan Bao, who recorded extraordinary feats imitating historical writing under the “strange tales” genre. The original story revolves around a young Chinese girl who steps out of her traditional, cultural role and saves her village by slaying a giant python.[9] The art critic Maura Reilly states that through Li Ji, Beynon confronts issues about multiculturalism and immigration in contemporary Australian society.[10] Beynon’s work also tackles the modern issues of race and identity. In Where is Your Original Home (a video of Li-Ji journeying across a modern Melbourne Chinatown), Beynon explores the question asked to many non-Anglo Australians: where are you from? She deconstructs how a conversational question can turn hostile caused by the underlying assumptions about belonging.[11]

Beynon is also inspired by her personal experiences in other cultures. During her residency in Harlem, Beynon drew from the neighbourhood’s styles and tastes and implemented them into her depictions of Li Ji (i.e. African hair braiding.) This transformation of Li Ji reflects her fluid, hybrid identity. Through this representation of Li Ji, Beynon explores issues of cultural identity and perceptions of race.[12]

Exhibitions

Solo

2015 – Dance of the Spirits, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

2015 – An-Li: A Chinese Ghost Tale, TarraWarra Museum of Art

2012 – Frida & Friends, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

2010 – Transcultural Icons, Sutton Gallery @ Depot, Sydney

2010 Room of the Talismans, Sutton Gallery Project Space, Melbourne

2009 Transcultural Creatures, Milani Gallery, Brisbane

2008 Auspicious Charms for Transcultural Living, Level 2, Art Gallery of New South Wales,

Sydney

2007 Espirito Transcultural/ Transcultural Spirit, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

2006 Melbourne Art Fair, Sutton Gallery

2005 Mixed Blood and Migratory Paths, The Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand 2004 Harlem to Noco: The

Hybrid Life of Li Ji, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

2003 100 Forms of Happiness/From the Lives of Li Ji, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

From the Lives of Li Ji, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

From the Dreams of Li Ji, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

Calligraffiti Wall, 1st Floor Artists' and Writers' Space, Melbourne

2002 From the Dreams of Li Ji, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

Kate Beynon 1994–2002, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide

Calligraffiti Wall, 1st Floor Artists’ and Writers’ Space, Melbourne

2001 Chinese Calligraffiti, Studio 12, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne Li Ji: Warrior Girl, Gallery 4A, Asia-Australia

Arts Centre, Sydney

2000 Li Ji: Warrior Girl, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Li Ji: Warrior Girl, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

1999 Happiness, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Hope/Wish, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

1998 Intrinsic Defence, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne 1997 WHAT people, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

1996 Old Folktale, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

Li Ji, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne 1995 Old Story, 1st Floor, Melbourne

1994 Kate Beynon, 1st Floor, Melbourne

1993 Knots, Bats, Characters, Tala Gallery, Melbourne

Group

2007 Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA

SHIFT: places changing, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, New South Wales

Heading North – Contemporary Asian Artists of Australia, Maroondah Art Gallery, Victoria

Eye to I: the face in recent art, curated by Geoffrey Wallis, Ballarat Art

Gallery, Victoria

2006 TarraWarra Biennial 2006 – Parallel Lives: Australian Painting Today, curated

by Victoria Lynn, TarraWarra Museum, Yarra Valley, Victoria

The 2006 Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Myer Mural Hall, Melbourne; and touring

Extra Aesthetic: 25 Views of the Monash University Collection, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne

Meeting Place, Keeping Place, George Adams Gallery, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne

2005 C’town Bling: art and the youth demografik, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney

Identity and Desire, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Pitch Your Own Tent: Art Projects/ Store 5/ 1st Floor, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne

MCA Collection: New Acquisitions in Context, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

A Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces 1985–2005,

200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne

Unscripted, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

The Plot Thickens: Narratives in Australian Art, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria

Art for Science- fundraiser for Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne

2004 Xin Nian: Contemporary Chinese Australian Art, The Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Australia Response Gallery, Melbourne

The Plot Thickens: Narratives in Australian Art, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne Home & Away: Place & Identity in Recent Australian Art, Faculty Gallery of Art & Design, Monash University, Melbourne

Australia Response Gallery, Melbourne

The Plot Thickens: Narratives in Australian Art, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne Home & Away: Place & Identity in Recent Australian Art, Faculty Gallery of Art & Design, Monash University, Melbourne

Curriculum Vitae 2016 – 2 –

2003 Synergies, Drill Hall, Australian National University, Canberra

The Future in Every Direction: Joan Clemenger Endowment for Contemporary Australian Art, The Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

See Here Now: Vizard Foundation Art Collection of the 1990s, Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne

The Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria

2002 Upstream: 400 Years of the Dutch East Indies Company, Australian Representative, Amsterdam and Hoorn, The Netherlands

Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968 – 2002, The Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Energy Fields: Selected Installations from the Monash University Collection,

Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne.

Tales of the Unexpected, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

No Worries! – Mai Pen Rai! Art From Australia and Thailand, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne

City of Hobart Art Prize, Tasmanian Art Gallery and Museum, Hobart

Watching Ocean and Sky Together, Fourth Wall Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial, presented by The Public Art Development Trust, London, UK

2001 Our Place: Issues of Identity in Recent Australian Art, Monash University in Prato, Palazzo Vaj, Italy

hybrid<life>forms: Australian New Media Art, Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

31st Alice Prize, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs

Short Soup; Sydney Asia Pacific Film Festival, Sydney

Asia in Australia: Beyond Orientalism, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane

Paperworks: Australian artists exploring drawing and the printed image, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

MCA Unpacked, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Gertrude Studio Artists 2001, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne

STOP/FRAME, New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale, New South Wales CACSA Fundraiser, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide

Bellas Gallery Group Exhibition, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

1st Floor Fundraiser, 1st Floor, Melbourne

2000 Pragmatics of Inscription: Wall Drawings, Linden Gallery, Melbourne

Rent, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; and Overgaden Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

Gertrude Street Studio Artists 2000, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne

Facsimile, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart; and Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria

1999 Perspecta 99, Talkback: Living Here Now – Art & Politics, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Facsimile, curated by Stuart Koop, LAC Gallery, Venezuela

The Queen is Dead, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland

Diaphanous, Span Gallery, Melbourne; and Nokia Singapore Arts Festival,

Caldwell House Gallery, Chijmes, Singapore

Look Again: Contemporary Prints and Drawings from the Collection, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Flux, Arts Victoria, Melbourne

1998 The Expanded Field, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne Alter Point, 1st Floor, Melbourne

Special Issue, 1st Floor, Melbourne

Mr Big and Friends, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

1st Floor Artists, The Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand

Objectivity: International Objects of Subjectivity, Contemporary Art Centre of Virginia, USA

1997 Blackphoenix with Michael Pablo, 1st Floor, Melbourne

Moët & Chandon Exhibition, Queensland Art Gallery; and touring nationally Gallery 4A Fundraiser, Sydney

Now and Then, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

1st Floor Fundraiser, 1st Floor, Melbourne

1996 Primavera 1996, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Deacons Graham & James/Arts 21 Award, Ian Potter Gallery, The University of Melbourne

Above and Beyond: Austral/Asian Interactions, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; and touring

nationally

AERPHOST, The Debtors’ Prison, Dublin, Ireland

Heirloom, Next Wave Festival, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne

Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

A Celebration: Recent Acquisitions of Heritage and Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Supermodels, Next Wave Festival, 1st Floor, Melbourne

S.W.I.M. Fundraiser, Project Space, RMIT, Melbourne

1995 Artist Editions, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne; and Bellas Gallery, Brisbane 1st Floor Fundraiser Exhibition, 1st

Floor, Melbourne

Kate Beynon, Maria Griffin, Megan Marshall, Jessica Rankin, Fringe Festival, 1st Floor,

Melbourne

1994 1st Floor Fundraiser Exhibition, 1st Floor, Melbourne

Intimate, with Maria Griffin and Megan Marshall, Nextwave Festival, Linden Gallery, Melbourne

Read My Lips, curated by Shiralee Saul, M.R.C Ascent Gallery, Melbourne; and Union Gallery, Adelaide

1st Floor Group Show Two, 1st Floor, Melbourne

1993 VCA Graduate Exhibition, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

Inside, with Maria Griffin and Megan Marshall, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

1992 Learning, curated by Jenny Zimmer and Gail Hastings, Monash Studios, Nextwave Festival, Melbourne

Festival of Art – VCA at the Malthouse, The Malthouse, Melbourne

1991 The Double Lucky Ho-Ho, with Wai-Ling Lai, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

Collections

American University, Washington DC, USA Artbank, Sydney

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth

The Australia Council, the Federal Government’s art funding and advisory body, Sydney Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria

BHP Billiton, Melbourne

Curtin University, Perth

Goldman Sachs JB Were, Sydney

Griffith University, Brisbane

Hamilton Art Gallery, Hamilton, Victoria

Holmesglen Institute of TAFE, Melbourne

Mercer Collection, Melbourne

Michael and Janet Buxton Collection, Melbourne

Monash University Collection, Melbourne

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

The Museum of Modern Art (MMK), Frankfurt, Germany

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

UQ Art Museum, Brisbane

Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Vizard Foundation, The University of Melbourne

Wesley Hospital, Brisbane

Private collections in Australia, New Zealand and USA

References

  1. ↑ Katrina Raymond and Emily Smith, An-Li: A Chinese Ghost Tale. (Tarrawarra Museum of Art, 2015)
  2. ↑ Sutton Gallery, Artist Profile: Kate Beynon. (Sutton Gallery, 2016)
  3. ↑ Sutton Gallery, Artist Profile: Kate Beynon. (Sutton Gallery, 2016)
  4. ↑ Katrina Raymond and Emily Smith, An-Li: A Chinese Ghost Tale. (Tarrawarra Museum of Art, 2015)
  5. ↑ Anna, Edmundson, Kate Beynon’s where is your original home? (Australia National University Press, 2009.)
  6. ↑ Brooklyn Museum, Global Feminisms: Kate Beynon (Youtube video, April 2010)
  7. ↑ Ashley Crawford, Exploring the passionate hybrid world of Li Ji (The Age, 2004)
  8. ↑ Raymond and Smith, An-Li: A Chinese Ghost Tale
  9. ↑ Deborah Hart, Tales of the Unexpected (National Gallery of Australia, 2002)
  10. ↑ Reilly, Maura, Curating Transnational Feminisms (Feminist Studies, 2010) p.170
  11. ↑ Edmundson, where is your original home?
  12. ↑ Edmundson, where is your original home?
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