Curriculum Vitae
Born 1982, Coffs Harbour NSW. Currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia.
Rowan Conroy is a visual artist whose practice focuses on the use of large format photography to document ancient and modern, rural and urban architecture and detritus as a means to reflect upon the archaeology of the present. He combines the use of traditional large format view cameras with the latest digital technology to produce photographic prints of great detail and clarity.
Conroy has combined his interest in archaeology and the visual arts through archaeological illustration and photography, which has been made possible through 10 years of involvement on excavations in Paphos, Cyprus conducted by the University of Sydney; and a study season in Torone, Greece. Conroy continues to work closely with the University of Sydney’s Nicholson museum and the Australian Archaeological Institute in Athens (AAIA). A melding between the disciplines of art and archaeology continues to be the major focus of Conroy's practice and is clearly reflected in his extensive series the poetics of detritus consisting of large format photographs of urban landscapes, ruins, and detritus from around the world.
In 2005 Conroy received a first class Bachelor of visual arts Honours degree from the University of Sydney's Sydney College of the Arts. Since that time he has had four significant solo exhibitions. In September 2006 he was awarded an Australia Council for the arts New Work Grant for emerging artists to produce a body of work for exhibition which culminated in the exhibition Puratha: the sad place. This exhibition was made possible through the New Work grant, which enabled Conroy to travel with his large format equipment to the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia. Conroy is currently a candidate in the Doctor of Philosophy in Visual Art program at the Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. Since late 2008 Conroy has been employed as consultant to the Nicholson Museum and the AAIA as a photographer, illustrator and designer.
Solo Exhibitions
2011 William J. Woodhouse Rephotography Project Nicholson Museum, Sydney (Pending)
2008 Puratha: the sad place revisited Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, New South Wales
2007 Puratha: the sad place Sydney College of the Arts Gallery
2006 Material Culture Peloton, Sydney
2006 Lebanon: from Baalbek to Beirut Nicholson Museum, Sydney
2005 Melancholy Objects Newspace Gallery, Sydney
2004 Oil and Plastic with Lachlan Calvey, Newspace Gallery, Sydney
Selected Group Exhibitions
2011 Exposed: Photography and the Classical Nude, The Nicholson Museum, Sydney
2010 The Wall, THEARTSPACE and The Goethe Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus
2008 Book for a lifetime, THEARTSPACE and The Goethe Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus
The Fragile Absolute, Delmar Gallery Trinity Grammar, Sydney
Collections
Australia Council for the Arts Permanent Collection
University of Wollongong Permanent Collection
Delmar Gallery Trinity Grammar School
Brain Mind Research Institute, Sydney
William Wilkins Memorial Art Collection
Paphos Municipality Council, Cyprus.
And numerous private collections