Holly Grace

Holly Grace is a full-time practicing artist whose current practice is based in Cheltenham, Victoria. She has established herself as a force in a competitive and rewarding field of glass for the past 20 years. Grace studied at Monash University, majoring in glass with first class honours and completing her Masters of Fine Art in 2004. Since then she has exhibited in venues such as Sydney Contemporary, Melbourne Art Fair, London Art Fair, Sofa Chicago, Art Taipei and has had numerous solo exhibitions both here in Australia and internationally. The artist has been collected by various public and private collections, such as the National Gallery of Australia, Parliament House Art Collection, Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Art Gallery of Western Australia, and Chevron Art Collection.

Holly Grace uses digital photography as a means to document the landscape. This documentation and the use of digital technology have become an integral part of her artistic practice and are combined with traditional techniques of hand-blown glass.

Holly Graces time at S12 was spent examining commonalities and differences between cultures and their relationships with the landscape. Through the use of a series of blown glass acoustic horns whose structures are based on the inner ear structures of humans, birds, and other animals indigenous to the Norwegian and Australian landscape she will create a series of sound and video recordings of the local landscape. Documenting initially with digital technology creating a resource of images, videos and experimental sound recordings. That will become a basis for a new body of glass artworks that explore the commonalities between diverse landscapes and our human connections with these places and glass as a medium for light and sound. For many years she has been amazed at the chameleon qualities of glass, inherent traits that allow it to appear solid and transparent, transferring light and distorting sound. It is these unique qualities and more that she explored throughout the residency in S12.