Kiera_

Kiera Brew Kurec’s practice is concerned with performance as a means for transformation through the agencies of time, endurance, environmental conditions and cultural practices. Her work includes live performance, performance for video, photography and sculpture.

In 2014 Brew Kurec completed a Master of Fine Art from the Victorian College of the Arts, graduating with first class honours. Her practice led research explored Performance, Ritual and Transformation, locating the history of contemporary performance practice in ancient ritual and ceremony.

Her practice is also concerned with the ethical, historical and current modes of the presentation and archiving of performance art. Brew Kurec is currently undertaking a research project exploring new methodologies to preserve and archive performance practice.

Brew Kurec has exhibited extensively through Melbourne and Australia as well as, New York, Oregon, Berlin and Penang. She recipient of various grants including The Australian Council for the Arts Career Development Grant, The National Association for Visual Artists Ignition Prize, Australia Council for the Arts New Work Grant for Early Career Artists, Yarra Ranges Council Cultural Development Grant and the Copyright Agency Limited Career Fund. She has undertaken residencies and internships in Berlin, Penang, Oregon, New York, Glen Helen - West MacDonald Ranges, Mildura and Gippsland.

Brew Kurec is the co host and co creator of Pro Prac a podcast that seeks to create transparency amongst the lives of working artists.


Education:
2014: Masters of Fine Art (first class), Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
2010: Bachelor of Fine Art, Honours (first class), Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
2007: Bachelor of Fine Arts painting, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne

Solo Exhibitions
2020 Archiving the Temporal, Bus Projects, Melbourne (Forthcoming)
2019 Meditation Vessels, Testing Grounds, Melbourne
2018 Melbourne Women’s Banners, A Shared Public, in collaboration with Hannah Raisin, Testing Grounds, Melbourne
2018 A Shared Public, in collaboration with Hannah Raisin, various locations Yarra Ranges, Victoria
2016 Object Permanence: Inversion, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide
2016 Object Permanence: The Space Between, Sawtooth, Launceston
2015 An Attempt to Harmonise, Bus Projects, Melbourne
2014 Exercises in Defining the Grey Area, Conduit Arts, Melbourne
2013 Each as the Other, West Space, Melbourne
2013 The Dual, Linden innovators, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne
2013 Center, The Projects, Yarra Ranges, Victoria
2012 Myself As An Island, Bus Projects, Melbourne
2012 The Fold, Rae and Bennett, Melbourne
2012 Give Me A Shot, Grace Exhibition Space, New York
2011 Give Me A Shot, Roller door Performance Space, Melbourne
2010 Border Crossings, West Space project room: The West Wing, Melbourne
2009 For Those Who Appreciate Nothing is Solid, Box Copy, Brisbane
2009 Dead Life, Seventh Gallery, Fitzroy, Melbourne
2009 Love Songs and Dedications, K-salon, Berlin
2009 Sent with Love, Takt gallery and residency Berlin
2008 Even Though It Hurt I Couldn’t Cry, TCB Art Inc. Melbourne
2008 The Birthday Party, Victoria Park Gallery, Collingwood, Melbourne

Selected Group Shows and Commissions
2019 Digital Agora, Public Site, Nillumbik Council
2018 Home Ground: Memory and Meaning, Maffra Art Space Gippsland Art Gallery, Victoria
2018 UnSTABLE, The Walls, Gold Coast, Queensland
2017 Burrinja Climate Change Biennale, Burrinja, Yarra Ranges, Victoria
2017 Keith and Elizabeth Murdoch Travelling Scholarship, Margaret Laurence Gallery, Melbourne
2017 Open House, True Estate, Brunswick, Melbourne
2017 Loosen, TCB Art Inc, Melbourne
2015 Visiting Paradise, Cowwarr Art Space, Gippsland, Victoria
2015 Burrinja Climate Change Biennale, Burrinja, Yarra Ranges, Victoria
2015 Colour in Action, Penang, Malaysia
2014 Marvel, Hotel Windsor, Melbourne
2014 Industrial Estate, Heidelberg, Melbourne
2013 Keith and Elizabeth Murdoch Travelling Scholarship, Margaret Laurence Gallery, Melbourne
2013 The Projects Group Show, The Projects, Yarra Ranges, Victoria
2013 Luminescence, Hotel Windsor, Melbourne
2012 Fountain Art Fair, New York, New York
2012 Work In Progress, Like My Love Life, The Art School, presented by Chashama, New York
2010 Berliner Kunst Salon, Alte Schachthöfe Berlin
2010 TAKT, Kulturamt Projektraum, Berlin
2010 The View From Here, 19 perspectives on Feminism, West Space as part of the Next Wave Festival, Melbourne
2008 Humming a New Diaspora, Blindside Gallery, Melbourne
2008 Play Heads, Alliance Francaise, St Kilda, Melbourne
2007 Do It, Hans Ulrich Obrist International Art Project, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne

Grants and Awards:
2020 Creative Victoria Sustain Grant
2020 Australia Council for the Arts Adapt Grant
2020 City of Melbourne Quick Response Grant
2019 City of Melbourne Annual Arts Grant
2019 Australia Council for the Arts Career Development Grant
2018 Wellington Shire Council Community Grant
2018 Karparty Foundation Grant
2018 Testing Grounds Banners Commission
2017 Yarra Ranges Council Cultural Development Grant
2017 Finalist, Keith and Elizabeth Murdoch Travelling Scholarship, Margaret Laurence Gallery, Melbourne
2017 Yarra Ranges Council Small Grants
2016 City of Melbourne, Test Sites Public Art grant
2015 Regional Training and Engagement Fund, Victorian College of the Arts Cowwarr Art Space Residency Program
2014 National Association for Visual Artists Ignition Prize
2013 Finalist, Keith and Elizabeth Murdoch Travelling Scholarship, Margaret Laurence Gallery, Melbourne
2013 and 2014 Finalist The Windsor Prize
2013 The Australian Post Graduate Award
2012 Australia Council for the Arts New Work Grant for Early Career Artists
2012 Yarra Ranges Council, Cultural Development.
2010 Copyright Agency Limited, Career Fund.
2007 The Alliance Francaise Award.
2007 The Maud Glover Feeley Award.

Residencies:
2020 Carbon Creative, Penang, Malaysia
2019 Centre for Dramaturgy and Curation, Melbourne
2017 Testing Grounds, Buying Time residency, Melbourne.
2017 Cowwarr Art space, Victoria, Australia.
2015 The New Spatial Economy Movement, An Ecology for Objects and Actions, Mildura, Victoria, Australia.
2015 Cowwarr Art space, Victoria, Australia.
2012 Signal Fire, Oregon, USA.
2009 Takt Berlin, Germany .

Public Talks, Panels and Symposiums:
2020 Pro Prac Symposium, Melbourne
2019 Professional Practice, Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School
2019 On Being and Artist, putting yourself out there, ACCA, Melbourne
2018 A Shared Public, Public art in the Dandenong ranges, Burrinja, Dandenong Ranges
2012 Artist Talk, Eastern Oregon University, Oregon, USA

Publications:
Bound Together: The Rae and Bennett Gallery, 2012.
Runway Australian Contemporary Art Magazine, Issue 16, Disappearance. Ways of Doing: T&A and the F-ing Gaze, Talia Linz, 2010.
The View From Here, 19 perspectives on Feminism, 2010.

Positions:
2019 - Current Pro Prac Podcast, Host and Creator.
2019 – 2020 Current Testing Grounds Site Manager.
2012 – 2013 Director, The Projects, Contemporary Art Space, Yarra Ranges, Victoria.
2011 – 2012 Intern, Franklin Furnace Archive Inc, New York.