Dena Kahan

1960 | Melbourne

Dena Kahan’s painting practice aims to subvert our natural inclination for order and perfection.

Dena Kahan’s work concerns itself with our relationship with nature, and our attempts to control and classify it. In her work, the natural history collection acts as a metaphor for this attempt to organise the natural world and our impact on it. Glass display cases create reflections and ambiguities of space and scale, undermining the order and organisation of the museum environment, creating a fantastic world. Her paintings segue neatly into the art museum environment, evidenced by the survey exhibition of her work at Ballarat Fine Art Gallery in 2014.

Kahan’s recent work extends her exploration of the natural history museum, taking as her subject the collection of antique botanical models at the The Santos Museum of Economic Botany, Adelaide; the Botanic Gardens Edinburgh and the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambridge.  In these current works, insects infiltrate the sterile environment of the museum store or display case, drawn to these artificial replicas of the plant world. This imagery references the tradition of 17th century Dutch still life, in which plants and insects take on symbolic meanings and flowers of different seasons bloom together.

AVAILABLE WORKS

CV

Dena Kahan

born 1960, lives in Melbourne

Education

2015     Masters of Arts by research, Federation University,
Victoria

1992     Bachelor of Fine Arts, Victorian College of the Arts

1982     Bachelor of Arts, Honours Degree in Art History,
University of Melbourne

Solo Exhibitions

2020

Hothouse 2, Gallerysmith, Melbourne

Hothouse, M Contemporary, Sydney

2018

Lure, Gallerysmith, Melbourne

2017

Herbarium, Gallerysmith, Melbourne

2015

Dena Kahan: The Glass Garden, Art Gallery Ballarat, Ballarat

2014

An Un-Natural History, Gallerysmith, Melbourne

2012

The Provisional Sublime, Gallerysmith, Melbourne

2011

Glass Garden, Gallerysmith, Melbourne

2009

Strange Garden, Red Gallery, Melbourne

2008

Recent Paintings, Fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne

On Glass, Woodbine Art, Malmsbury

2007

The Idea of Perfection, Alluvial Gallery, Bendigo

2006

Looking Through Glass, Fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne

2002

New Paintings, Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne

1997

Some things to do with string, WestSpace, Melbourne

1993

Looking Up, Linden Gallery, Melbourne

Selected Curated and Prize Exhibitions

2022

The Len Fox Painting Prize (finalist), Castelmaine Art Gallery

Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize (finalist), Bayside Gallery,
Brighton

OMNIA Art Prize, St Kevin’s College, Melbourne

2021

Arthur Guy  Memorial Painting Prize
(finalist),
Bendigo Art Gallery

Bayside Art Prize (finalist), Bayside Gallery, Brighton

2019

The Sublime Sea: Rapture and Reality (curated exhibition),
Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery

Arthur Guy Painting Prize, (finalist), Bendigo Art Gallery

Georges River Art Prize, (finalist), Hurstville Museum and Gallery,
Sydney

2018

Recent Acquisitions, Town Hall Gallery, Victoria

Wyndham Art Prize, (finalist)

2017

Hyperbotanica, Gallerysmith, Victoria

2016

Rick Amor Drawing Prize, (shortlisted), Ballarat Art Gallery,
Victoria

2015

Unintended (Refrains:), George Paton Gallery, University of
Melbourne

2014

Stanthorpe Festival Art Show, WINNER, Stanthorpe Regional Art
Gallery, QLD

Geelong Art Prize, (shortlisted), Geelong Art Gallery

Gold Coast Art Prize, (shortlisted) Gold Coast Art Gallery,
Queensland

2012

Tidal: City of Devonport Art Award, (shortlisted), Devonport,
Tasmania

McGivern Prize, (shortlisted), Maroondah Art Gallery

2010

Fletcher Jones art prize, (shortlisted), Geelong Gallery

Strange Nature, Red Gallery, Melbourne

2009

R&M McGivern Prize, (shortlisted)

In Modern Memory, Latrobe University Visual Arts Centre, Bendigo

2007

Darebin Art Prize, (shortlisted)

An intimate look, UPstairs Gallery, Bundanon Homestead, NSW

2006

Fletcher Jones Art Prize, (shortlisted), Geelong Art Gallery

Robert Jacks Drawing Prize, (shortlisted), Bendigo Art Gallery

In Modern Memory, Blindside Gallery, Melbourne

2004

Phyllis Palmer Gallery, La Trobe University, Bendigo

2003

Reunion, George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne

2001-03

We Are Australian, Travelling Exhibition, Australia and abroad,
Victorian Arts Centre

1999

Minim-art, Talk Artist’s Initiative, Melbourne

1998

Carolyn Dew, Dena Kahan & Susan Hewitt, Talk Artist’s
Initiative, Melbourne

1997

Latrobe Street Gallery, Melbourne

1996

Love at the Carlisle Lodge Motel, Carlisle Lodge Motel, Melbourne

Everyone Goes to Dimmeys, Dimmeys shop window, Melbourne

1995

Artworkz 7, Gallery 101, Melbourne

Shifting Ground, Linden Gallery, Melbourne

Murdoch Prize Exhibition, Melbourne

1994

6 Easy Pieces, Elizabeth Boustead & Dena Kahan, Temple Studios,
Melbourne

1993

Parcel Post Show, RM 4, Linden Gallery, Melbourne

1992

Platform, Melbourne

Awards / Residencies

2015     Foundation Obras art residency, Evoramonte,
Portugal

2014     Winner – Stanthorpe Art Prize, Qld

2008     Awarded a New Work Grant by the Australia
Council for the Arts

2008     Studio Residency, Barbican Arts Trust, London

2005     Bundanon Artist’s Residency

1995     Awarded Pat Corrigan exhibition grant

1989     Sponsored by the Ian Potter Foundation to study
in Florence

1984     Awarded the Harold Wright and Sarah and William
Holmes

Scholarships to study in the Department of Prints and Drawings, British
Museum

Media / Essays

Wondrous but strange: botanical collections and the contemporary artist,
Alison Inglis, November 2012

After the Weather, Win News, Channel 9, 23, May 2007

Terri-Anne Kingsley, ABC Website, 14 May 2007

Jo Printz, Breakfast with Jonathan Ridnell, ABC Local Radio,
Central Victoria, 14 May 2007

James Taylor, The Bendigo Advertiser, 17 May 2007

Amanda Smith, The Deep End, Radio National, 6 September, 2006

Penny Webb, The Age, 15 September, 2006

Megan Backhouse, The Age, 16 September, 2006

Stephen Haley, A reflection, on glass, Catalogue Essay, 2006

Megan Backhouse, The Age, 25 February, 2006

Amanda Johnson, New Paintings, Sky Pieces, Catalogue Essay, 2002

Megan Backhouse, The Age, July 2002

Sandra Bridie, Conversations between Carolyn Dew, Susan Hewitt, Dena
Kahan

Rebecca Lancashire, The Age, 19 December, 1997

Anna Clabburn, The Age, 17 December, 1997

Collections

Bundanon Trust

Ian Potter Museum, Melbourne

Museum of Victoria

Town Hall Gallery, City of Boroondara, Melbourne

Lyceum Club, Melbourne

Private collections in Australia and abroad