Past Residents
Past Resident2012: Creative Australia
Benjamin Armstrong
Benjamin Armstrong creates sculptures, drawings and prints that allude to a prehistoric time yet to come. Working with materials such as wax, wood, blown glass, inks and pigments, the nucleus of his practice is always found through drawing. His objects and images offer the viewer a concentrated palette and powerful simplicity. His works are both graceful and disquieting.
Armstrong (born 1975) will exhibit his work in Gwangju Biennale in September (2012). Previous international projects include: First Life, Xin Dong Cheng Gallery, Beijing (2010); Before and After Science, Adelaide Biennial, Australia (2010); Hong Kong Art Fair (2010); and Still Vast Reserves, Magazzino d’Arte Moderna, Rome (2009). Recent solo exhibitions include: Conjurers, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne (2012) and Hold Everything Dear, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth (2009). Selected group exhibitions include: The Sleep of Reason, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2012); New09, Australian Centre for Contemporary, Melbourne (2009); and Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2006). In 2010 Emblem Books published Holding a Thread, covering the last ten years of Armstrong’s practice with an essay by Juliana Engberg and interview by Charlotte Day.
Benjamin Armstrong, Conjurer
Benjamin Armstrong, Installation of Conjurers
Benjamin Armstrong, Witness & Dust to Gold
Benjamin Armstrong, Hold Everything Dear I
Benjamin Armstrong, The shape of things to come
Residents from Australia
Past Resident2012: Ministry of Culture of Luxembourg
Claudia Passeri
Claudia Passeri creates site-specific interventions and contextual pieces that explore human perception in relation to place. Depending on the site and the context, the work takes on social, political, and environmental aspects. Her research has a neo-romantic aspect that seeks, frequently via the use of irony, to reveal the mechanisms that activate the human creative processes, which transform how we view the world.
Claudia Passeri (Born 1977 Luxembourg) lives and works between Luxembourg and Perugia, Italy. Her work has been regularly exhibited in Belgium, France, Italy, Germany and Luxembourg. In 2007, she co-founded the Agence Borderline, a public art project born in the context of the European cultural year 2007 In Luxembourg.
Claudia Passeri, Turn Over, 2008, Performance laser cut steel plaque and tricolor chord, 32 × 24 in. (81.28 × 60.96 cm)
Claudia Passeri, Saracinesca, Prototype1, 2012, Laser cut aluminum, 40 × 40 in. (101.6 × 101.6 cm)
Claudia Passeri, Rosso di Sera, 2012, Window filter and black lacquered steel, 45 in
Claudia Passeri, Campione, 2011, Wall, soundproof window, tree, and "il cielo in una stanza" by Mina, 275 × 78 in. (698.5 × 198.12 cm)
Claudia Passeri, Furlo, Italy, 2012, digital print on postcard, 70 × 48 in. (177.8 × 121.92 cm)
Past Resident2012: Foundation for a Civil Society
Olson Lamaj
Olson Lamaj works in several media including photography, video, painting and installation, though his work is typically serial photography executed over a long period of time. In addition, he makes site-specific work when inspired by a physical place. His training in the Italian academy has deeply impacted his practice, not only in his treatment of photography as an art medium, but also in his ability to notice and capture the absurdities, ironies, and contradictions that are a result of the unregulated and fast-paced change that characterizes contemporary urban Albania. As an artist who lives between two different worlds, Lamaj is sensitive to these transformations and shares the peculiar visions that this position affords him.
Born and raised in Albania, Olson Lamaj studied visual art in Milan where he has worked and lived for several years. He has participated in various exhibitions throughout Europe and in his native Albania.
Events & Exhibitions
Salon: Tomaz Furlan and Olson Lamaj
October 9, 2012
Olson Lamaj, Torso 1, 2006, Digital photo, 271/2 × 391/2 in. (69.85 × 100.33 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Olson Lamaj, Shqipe, 2006, Digital photo, 271/2 × 391/2 in. (69.85 × 100.33 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Olson Lamaj, Photo Eater, 2011, Stop-motion video. Courtesy of the artist
Olson Lamaj, Photo Eater. Courtesy of the artist
Olson Lamaj, Albania From the Street, 2012, Photo book, 85/16 × 1113/16 in. (21.08 × 29.97 cm). Courtesy of the artist
