Caroline Rannersberger

Born in Adelaide, South Australia; lives and works in Tasmania

Painter, installation artist, printmaker and curator Caroline Rannersberger responds intuitively to her environment, referencing in particular the rhizomatic model of Deleuzian philosophy (Gilles Deleuze). This philosophy opens up a new way of ‘seeing’ the landscape through acknowledging that rather than one fixed viewpoint, landscape contains multiple and shifting points of connection across time and space. Rannersberger has explored these themes closely over the last ten years, in particular, through her research towards her Master of Visual Arts, with a focus on the sublime, and subsequently her PhD, with a broader emphasis on experience and sensation in the landscape.

Rannersberger’s work reflects the extreme forces of the remote regions she has experienced, across northern Australia and to the far south, as well as the alpine regions of Austria and Germany, where she was raised and educated. Foreboding mountains, rising from within vast oceans, all but crushed beneath the forces of impending storm clouds towering over the land. As such, working predominantly across paper and linen, Rannersberger’s multiple panel landscapes reference the sensations of her Tasmanian surrounds, elements of her north Australian experiences and her German heritage. Her work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT), and Artbank. She has been a finalist in numerous prizes, including the Glover prize, the Fleurieu Art Prize, the ABN Amro Emerging Artist Award, the Fremantle Print Award, & the Alice Prize.

‘In all her works we observe the observer, we experience an encounter that seems impossible, that of seeing the sensation of seeing and its apparent dissolution. She attempts to capture that tremulous state, what Alain Badiou has called elsewhere, “the movement of disappearance”, a disturbance not yet transformed into an object nor cast in negation as an absence, but rather the actuality of disappearance itself.’ Professor Donal Fitzpatrick, 2012

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Relevant Qualifications

2007-2010     PhD Visual Arts; Charles Darwin University, Darwin

2005-2006     MA Visual Arts ; Charles Darwin University, Darwin

1992-1996     BA Visual Arts (studies in painting, drawing, visual art theory); MFA (semester with Fiona Hall) ; University of South Australia, Adelaide

1990              RSA/Cambridge Diploma in TESLA; Edith Cowan University, Perth

1983-1986     BA Interpreting & Translating; University of Vienna, Austria/Edith Cowan University, Perth

 

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2020 Prelude to Arcadia, Bett Gallery, May

2018 Oblivion's Flow, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, August

2018 Breath and Other Basics, Bett Gallery, Hobart

2016 Illuminous: Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne

2016 Sentiment and Sedimentation: Despard Gallery, Hobart

2015 Landscape into the Fold:  Despard Gallery, Hobart

2014 Thresholds of Terrain: Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne

2013 Unfolding Landscape: Olsen Irwin Gallery, Sydney / Landscape in Refrain: Despard Gallery, Hobart

2012 Movement of Disappearance: Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne

2011 Terra Mercurialis: Cross Cultural Art Exchange, Darwin

2010 Unsettling Country: Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney

2008 Landscapes of Delight and Disquiet: Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney/ Charles Darwin University Gallery

2007 Sublime Territory: Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney/Darwin Visual Arts Association,NT/ Sublime Journey: Northern Editions, Charles Darwin University, NT

2006 Sublime Territory: Araluen Galleries Alice Springs NT / New Works (Post Graduate Symposium) Charles Darwin University

2005 New Works: Charles Darwin University Gallery

2002 Darwin Festival of Arts, NT Darwin Entertainment Centre Gallery, NT

2000 New paintings: Adelaide Central Gallery, SA

1999 New Paintings: BMG Gallery, Adelaide, SA

 

Selected Group Exhibitions

2018     Coastal, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne

2017     Rotation, Bett Gallery, Hobart

2016     Despard Summer Show

2016     EDGE2 ISTHMUS; MONA FOMA, Bruny Island (Curator, Artist)

2015     Edge: Peripheries of Practice:  Leading Bruny Island and Tasmanian Artists; Bruny Island Gallery (Forestvale Design Centre)

2015      Despard Summer Show

2015      Off Road, Flinders Lane Gallery

2014      Despard Summer Show

2014      Sublime Point; The Landscape in Painting: Hazelhurst Regional Gallery

2014      Landscapes; Ways of Looking : Olsen Irwin Gallery

2014      Celebrating 25 Years : Flinders Lane Gallery

2013/14 Despard Gallery Christmas exhibition: Despard Gallery; Hobart

2013      40 Artists from an Island : Long Gallery, Salamanca, Hobart

2012      Merry Margaret 25th Christmas exhibition: Despard Gallery; Hobart / Au Courant: Tim Olsen Gallery; Sydney / Director’s Choice: 25th Anniversary: Despard Gallery; Hobart / Time and Space : Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne / New Artists: Despard Gallery, Hobart /The Paper Room : Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne

2011      Visible Invisible: Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne

2010      Greatest Hits: Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne / Agenda:Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney

2009      Hong Kong Art Fair: Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney

2008      The other thing – a survey show: Charles Darwin University Art Collection / Melbourne Art Fair, courtesy Dominik Mersch Gallery:Dominik Mersch Gallery in Melbourne / Silvershot Gallery, Melbourne, courtesy Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney  Melbourne, Vic. / Charles Darwin University

 

Collections

RACT Collection (Freycinet Lodge) Tasmania

PriceWaterhouseCoopers Collection

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory ; Darwin

National Gallery of Australia ; Canberra

Artbank; Sydney

Macquarie Group;Sydney

Suncorp Collection; Brisbane

Private collection of Carol Schwartz AM; Melbourne

Private collection of Robyn Archer, OA; Adelaide

Charles Darwin University Art Collection; Darwin

 

Awards & Prizes

2019    Australia Council New Work Grant

2019    City of Hobart, Creative Hobart Grant

2016    Glover Prize Finalist, Evandale

2016    Blake Prize Director’s Cut

2015    Lloyd Rees Art Prize finalist, Hobart

2015    Recipient, Tasmanian Regional Arts grant and Kingborough Council Community Grant

2014    Mosman Art Prize finalist, Sydney

2014    Bay of Fires Art Prize finalist, St Helens, Tas

2013    Hutchins Art Prize finalist, Hobart

2013    Glover Prize finalist, Evandale, Tas

2012    Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize (finalist); Brisbane

2011     TogArt Contemporary Art Award; finalist, Darwin

2011     Glover Prize finalist, Evandale, Tas

2011     City of Albany Art Prize finalist; Vancouver Arts Centre, Albany, WA

2010     Stan and Maureen Duke Gold Coast Art Prize; finalist; Gold Coast City Art Gallery

2009     Glover Prize finalist, Evandale, Tas

2008     Fleurieu Art Prize; Fleurieu Water Prize;finalist in both categories; Fleurieu Peninsula, SA

2007     ABN Amro Emerging Artist Award finalist; Sydney

2007     TogArt Contemporary Art Award NT; finalist; Darwin

2007     Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship

2006     Fremantle Print Award, finalist; Fremantle, WA

2006      Alice Prize finalist; Alice Springs

 

Residencies

2015  Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Sydney and Masterclass “Bringing Landscape into the Fold”

 

Commissions

Arts Tasmania: Illawarra Primary School, Blackmans Bay, Tasmania 2019

Arts Tasmania: Kingston Community Health Centre 2108/19

Zinfra: "Enlightening Land"2018

Private commissions - various

“Commonwall Mural”,  55 metre wall with Common Ground Tasmania residents (www.artcgt.wix.com/blog)

Private commission for Carol Schwartz AM

Celebrating Darwin 2013, City of Darwin Public Art Installation (Design Development)

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Research Foundation Adelaide

Cancer and Bowel Research Trust Association, Inc Adelaide

SA Ambulance Adelaide

 

Reviews, Catalogues, Media

2020      Clement, Tracey (15 May 2020), Lockdown Libraries: Caroline Rannersberger, Artguide, https://artguide.com.au/lockdown-libraries-caroline-rannersberger

2018      McLeod, Penny (2018, April 21-22) Landscape Meditation (section: Goodlife), The Mercury Tasweekend, p.17      

2016      Harper, Andrew (2016, March 26-27) Starting from Scratch, The Mercury Tasweekend, p.21

2016      Stranger, Lucy (2016, March 8) Sentiment and Sedimentation, Artist Profile, www.artistprofile.com.au/caroline-rannersberger-sentiment-and-sedimentation/

2015      Burden, Hilary. (2015, April 25). ‘Edge’; The Mercury Saturday Magazine, p.6.

2015      Selby, Clyde. (2015, January 31). ‘Colour Across Continents’, The Mercury Saturday Magazine, p.20.

2014      Craven, Owen. (2014). Caroline Rannersberger; Landscape into the Fold. Art Almanac, December/January 2015, pp. 44,45.

2014      Collins, Lorna. (2014). Making Sense; Art Practice and Transformative Therapeutics (1 ed.). UK: Bloomsbury

2013      Selby, Clyde. (2013, April 13). Panels full of natural beauty, Review, The Mercury Saturday Magazine, pp. 22-23.

2013      Southern Scene. (2013, 5th April 2013). Review, The Mercury, p. p.38.

2013      Murray, Daena. (2012). Hot Springs: The Northern Territory and Australian Contemporary Artists. Melbourne: Macmillan Art. pp 97-97.

2012      Fitzpatrick, Donal. (2012). Movement of Disappearance. Melbourne Review(May ).

2012      Movement of Disappearance “Pick of the Month (Art)”. (2012). Melbourne Magazine; The Age(May).

2012      Luxfor, Phe. (2012). Time. In F. L. Gallery (Ed.), Time and Space. Melbourne: Flinders Lane Gallery.

2011      Kohen, Apolline. (2011). Unusual Terrains in Varied Media. Australian Art Review(May-June), 79-81.

2011      Coleman, Leanne. (2011). Painting northern Australia: Caroline Rannersberger. Origins, Charles Darwin University(1, March 2011), 30-31.

2010      ‘The Week’, Art Review, June 25

2010      Christopher, Lissa. “Visual Art: Unsettling Country.” Sydney Morning Herald, June 12-13.

2009      Artist Explores New Horizons. (2009, October 31). NT News.

2009      Collins, Lorna. (2009). Art as a social act: Making sense: the painting event. PhD Thesis. Jesus College, University of Cambridge. Cambridge.

2008      Clement, Tracey. (2008, October 3-9). Metro Art:Caroline Rannersberger, Review, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 21.

2008      Angel, Anita. (2008). The other thing – a survey show In C. D. University (Ed.). Darwin: Charles Darwin University.

2008      Rothwell, Nicolas. (2008). Catalogue Essay, Landscapes of Delight and Disquiet, Caroline Rannersberger (pp. 2-4). Sydney: Thirty-seven degrees contemporary fine art gallery (Dominik Mersch Gallery), Sydney,.

2008      Stainer, Leon. (2008). Printmaking in SCAH, Charles Darwin University. Imprint, 43(Winter; 2), 9.

2007  ABC, 2007, Landscape Painting Documentary ‘Painting Australia, Kakadu’; ABC. (2006). Painting Australia: Kakadu.   Retrieved April 8, 2010, from http://www.abc.net.au/tv/paintingaustralia/stories/kakadu.htm

2007      Hampson, Jane. (2007). NT: Caroline Rannersberger. Art & Australia, 44 Autumn(3).

2007      Green, F (Ed) 2007, TogArt Contemporary Art Award (NT), PR Print, Queensland

2007      Unwin, S. (2007). Caroline Rannersberger. Resident Magazine(6; Wet Season), 172.

2007      Australia Business Arts Foundation, 2007, ‘Top Ten Tips for Exhibiting Artists’

2007      ABN Amro Emerging Artist Award Catalogue

2007      Goethe Institut, 2007, Portrait subject of, Far Away, So Close, Germans living in Australia, by Claudia Terstappen

2006      Spencer, R 2006, ‘Prints find earthy element’, West Australian, 30th September

 

Published research papers, presentations

2011          “The Sensation of Painting Country in Remote Northern Australia.” In Making Sense: For an Effective Aesthetics, edited by Lorna Collins and Elizabeth Rush,                     157-84. Bern: Peter Lang AG, 2011. (book chapter)

2011          “The Logic of Untamed Chaos: Bryan Bulley.” Art Monthly Australia October, no. 244(2011).

2010          Review of Djalkiri Blue Mud Bay Exhibition, 24hrArt, Artlink; Volume 30, No 4, 2010

2010          Essay: “Metaphysical Territory.” Art Monthly Australia no. 230 (2010): 21-25.

2010          Presentation: Unsettling Country: The sensation of northern Australian landscape painting;Curtin University School of Design and Art, Perth

2009          Colloquium Presentation: Unsettling Country: The sensation of northern Australian landscape painting; Cambridge University, UK: ‘Making Sense               Colloquium’ ; Charles Darwin University, NT, Australia

2009          Exhibition Review: Gary Lee; ‘Photofile’, Australian Centre for Photography, Vic

2008          Curated Exhibition and paper: CDU Post Grad in Progress, NT

2008          Artist Forum CDU: Landscapes of Delight and Disquiet, NT

2007          Artist Forum Araluen Galleries: Sublime Territory, NT

2007          Artist Business Top Ten Tips for Exhibiting Artists (Australia Business Arts Foundation), NSW

2007          Artist Forum CDU: Sublime Territory; CDU, NT

2006          Symposium Presentation: Beyond the Sublime: CDU Postgraduate Symposium, NT

 

Further Art Related Experience

2019  Creative Director BRUNY20 Fellowship for the Arts www.brunyislandfoundation.com

2017-19 Coordinator, Cape Bruny Residency

2018  Curator, BRUNY18, Bruny Island Art Prize

2015 - ongoing Director, Bruny Island Foundation for the Arts

2017/16 Coordinator, Cape Bruny Residency

2016  Curator, BRUNY16, Bruny Island Art Prize

2015/17 Doctoral examiner, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University

2015 Painting workshops, Kingborough Council, Tasmania

2014 -  ongoing Curator, EDGE projects www.brunyislandedge.com, including EDGE2 Isthmus, MOFO 2016

2014 Judge, Abel Tasman Art Prize, Tasmania/Holland

2012-2016 Bruny Island Arts Secretary; Treasurer and web designer (2014-2106); Bruny Island Arts committee member 2012-2016

2014 Common Ground Tasmania “Common Wall” mural Creative Director and Facilitator

2013 Bruny Island Arts “Kids Artzone Festival” painting workshop facilitator

2012 Bruny Island Arts “Kids Artzone Festival” Painting workshop facilitator; Bruny Island Arts committee member, Tasmania

2009-2011 Sessional lecturer in Visual Arts:Higher education and VET (painting, drawing, visual art theory); Arts writer  Charles Darwin University, NT; Journals: Artlink, Art Monthly

2006-7 Facilitator and Curator, Mulil Bim, Kakadu Artists Limited Edition Print Exhibition

Charles Darwin University; Social Justice Communications

2006 Coordinator, Creative Arts and Humanities at CDU Post graduate symposium

Charles Darwin University School of Creative Arts and Humanities

2006, Curator, Post Grad in Progress, NT (Exhibiting artist and Curator) Charles Darwin University, NT

2006 Subject of landscape painting documentary, Painting Australia: Kakadu; ABC television

2002 Painting tutor (VET); Event Manager and Artistic Director, Kakadu Arts Festival (Mahbilil Festival)

Batchelor College / Injalak Arts and Crafts, Gunbalanya, West Arnhem; Charles Darwin University, Jabiru Campus

2002 Judge, Katherine Art Prize Katherine Town Council, NT

1995 Artist in Residence  Art School of SA, University of SA

1984-86  Arts Writer Danube Weekly, Vienna, Austria

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