BIOGRAPHY
Jenna Corcoran is an interdisciplinary artist living and working on Wurundjeri country. She works across a range of media including video, installation, performance, text, drawing and painting. She has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh Fringe and Counihan Gallery Brunswick, and has participated in artist residencies in Wales, Scotland, Germany, Finland and Melbourne.
Jenna Corcoran was a Co-Curator of the award-winning Hidden Door Festival (2017, 2018) and Studio Manager for the internationally recognised artist and poet Alec Finlay. She is currently an academic teaching Creative Arts and Screen Media at Victoria University, Melbourne.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I am interested in the performance of daily life and the power structures in place which impact that. I explore the everyday through an intersectional feminist lens in an attempt at understanding the world immediately around me and my place in that world. My art finds its place in others through shared experience, provocation, and authenticity.
I am currently working on an ongoing and evolving project around feminist utopias as an exploration of power and place. Specifically, I am looking at paradoxical relationships girls, women, queer, gender- and neuro-diverse people have with public/private space, the power of suburban design, safety and violence.
SOLO SHOWS
2021
NIGHTWALK, Online, Moonee Valley City Council
2020
I WLD WLK, The Clocktower Centre, Online Art Residency, Moonee Valley City Council
2018
LET'S SMASH THE PATRIARCHY PARTY, Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh
2017
lost, Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh
2016
re:place, Whitespace, Edinburgh
Fragmented Impressions of a Continuous Nature, Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh
2014
bi, Brunswick Arts Space, Melbourne
2013
Window, Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Melbourne
2011
Taped, ‘Perfo’, Telakka, Tampere, Finland
2010
[Re]Viewing Big Brother and [Per]Forming the Real, The Smart House, Melbourne
2009
Reæl TV [Again], Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
2008
My Life in the Box, Trocadero Art Space, Melb.
This is Reality TV Baby! And You’re the Star, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne
2006
CCTV: The Omnipresent Gaze, Trocadero Art Space, Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2023
Warm Welcome, Schoolhouse Studios, Coburg
2022-3
Linden Postcard Show, Linden New Art
2021
Footscray Art Prize, FCAC
Wyndham Art Prize, Wyndham Art Gallery
2019
urtopia, Artsbox, Footscray
2018
Edinburgh Macmillan Art Show, Bonhams
2017
Space for Action, Reachout with Arts in Mind & Speirs Centre, Alloa, Scotland
DIRRTY Cabaret, Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh
The Winter Show, The Sutton Gallery, Edinburgh
2016
FLY 2016, Visual Art Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland RSA, Edinburgh
LeithLate 2016, Out of the Blue Leith Walk Studios, Edinburgh
DIRRTY Cabaret, Edinburgh Fringe Festival
2015
Exit, Brunswick Arts Space, Melbourne
Comfort Zone, The Napier Upstairs, Melbourne
2014
Anatomy 10: The Frost Kid Gang go to Desolationland, Summerhall, Edinburgh
Teasemania, The 86, Melbourne
Nouvelle Royale, Australian Burlesque Festival, Howler, Melbourne
Two Thousand and Four, Brunswick Arts Space
Metsä Pako, Brunswick Arts Space, with Brunswick Music Festival, Melbourne
Burleskathon: 24 Hours of Tease, Guinness World Record Performance, Melbourne
Entry, Brunswick Art Space, Melbourne
2013
Le Petite Scandal - Le Débuts, Burlesque Bar, Melb.
Bond Song, Brunswick Art Space, Melbourne
Bond Song, Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Melbourne
Baby Bombshells, Australian Burlesque Festival, Prince of Wales, Melbourne
Dark Night of Desire, Club Voltaire, North Melb.
Burlesque Showcase, Ballarat Beat Rockabilly Fest.
Entry, Brunswick Art Space, Melbourne
2012
You Like This, Brunswick Art Space, Melbourne
First and Last, Counihan Gallery in Brunswick
Cherry Poppers Tease, Red Bennies, Melbourne
2011
Salat Fieber, tamtamART, Berlin
Open Studio, Takt Kunstprojektraum, Berlin
Mini Monsterotica, Red Bennies, Melbourne
You Started It, Tinning Street, Melbourne
Entry 20.11, Brunswick Art Space, Melbourne
2010
Monsterotica, Thornbury Theatre, Melbourne
Under the Rainbow, The Pea Green Boat Studios
Free Brains, SJS Gallery, Melbourne
You Started It, The Pea Green Boat Studios, Melb.
2009
Wallpaper Show, Trocadero Art Space
The Venus Room, Substation, Melbourne
2005
The UG Collective 1.0, vuspace, Melbourne
The UG Collective 2.0, Eckersley’s Open Space Gallery, Melbourne
The UG Collective Video Art, TekniKunst Art Festival, LOOP, Melbourne
2004
Digital Video Art Night, MUFF Kunst Art Festival, LOOP, Melbourne
Violence, MUFF Kunst Art Festival, Red Gallery
ARTIST RESIDENCIES
2020
The Clocktower Centre Online Artist Residency, City of Moonee Valley
Artsbox Artist in Residence, Maribyrnong City Council, Australia
2018
Stiwdio Maelor, Corris, Wales
2015
Testimony of the Rocks, sailing around the Inner Hebrides, Scotland
2011
Arteles, Haukijärvi, Finland
Takt, Berlin, Germany
ART PRIZES
2021
Finalist, Footscray Art Prize
Finalist, Wyndham Art Prize
CURATION
2023
Warm Welcome, Schoolhouse Studios, Coburg
2017 - 2018
Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh
2014
LAUNCH, Brunswick Art Space, Melbourne
2005
IMPAKT! video art exhibition, TekniKunst Art Festival, Melbourne
EDUCATION/TRAINING
2018
The Dance of Darkness, Butoh Workshop, with Paul Michael Henry, Edinburgh
2017
Exploratory Clown Workshop, with Saras Feijoo, Edinburgh
2016
The Beauty Of Mistakes: Clowning for Cabaret, with Kiki Lovechild, Glasgow
2013
Clowning workshop, with Lucy Hopkins and Mooky Cornish, Melbourne
Physical Actor Training, Zen Zen Zo Studio, Melbourne
2011
Doctor of Philosophy – Visual Art, Victoria University, Melbourne
2009 - 2014
Performance and Burlesque, Bottoms Up! Burlesque & Pole School, Melbourne
2009
Cabinet making/furniture studies, Victoria University, Melbourne
2008
Performance Mentorship, Western Edge, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne
2006
Bachelor of Arts – Computer Mediated Art (First Class Honours), Victoria University
SCHOLARSHIPS/GRANTS
2021
COVID-19 Recovery Grant, City of Moonee Valley
2020
The Clocktower Centre Online Artist Residency, City of Moonee Valley
2018
Hope Scott Trust Visual Art Grant
2007 - 2010
Victoria University Postgraduate Scholarship
2009
Performance Mentorship, Western Edge Youth Arts
PRESS & REVIEWS
2D or not 2D - a visual art tour, Hidden Door blog, June 2017
Holsworth, M. 2013, 'From Russia with Stamps', Black Mark: Melbourne Art & Culture Critic, 28 September 2013
Holsworth, M. 2012, ‘Like This’, Black Mark: Melbourne Art & Culture Critic, 10 August 2012
‘Art Comes First, and Last’ Melbourne Times Weekly, 5 June 2012
‘No sleep for technoheads’, The Melbourne Times, 3 August 2005, p. 21.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2019 - present
Teaching Academic, Victoria University
2016 - 2018
Artist Project Support and Co-Curator, Hidden Door Festival 2017, Edinburgh
2017 - 2018
Tutor, Contemporary Realism Drawing, Look & Draw, Edinburgh
2015 - 2018
Studio Manager, Studio Alec Finlay, Edinburgh
2014
Gallery Assistant, The Sutton Gallery, Edinburgh
Invigilator, Inverleith House, Edinburgh
Discipline Coordinator, Visual Art, VU
2007 - 2014
Sessional Lecturer, Visual Art, Victoria University
2012 - 2014
Gallery Assistant, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2011 - 2014
Committee Member, Brunswick Art Space, Melb.
2011
Artist Talk, Satellite Platform, Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland
Member, National Association for the Visual Arts
2010 - 2011
Studio Artist, The Pea Green Boat Studios, Melb.
Volunteer, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces
Assistant Photographer, Relic Imagery
2010
Projection Artist, Monsterotica, Thornbury Theatre
Photographer, Melbourne International Arts Festival
2009
Panel member, Critical Animals, This is Not Art Festival, Newcastle
2005
Co-Curator IMPAKT! video art exhibition, TekniKunst Art Festival, Melbourne
Co-Director, UG Collective
2004
Volunteer, MUFF Kunst Art Festival, Melbourne