curriculum vitae
0414 256 538
(03) 9417 0063
https://www.instagram.com/p/ChcBQkghjC1/
​
Residencies and appointments
2019 Artist in Residence - The Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne,
2019 Art Patron - Mount Burnett Observatory, Victoria, Australia.
2018 - Peer reviewer, Leonardo: Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology, MIT Press.
2014 Artist in Residence, - EATT Magazine, www.eattmag.com (accessible to ipad and iphone users)
2012 Artist in Residence – St Vincent’s Hospital
2011 Artist in Residence – ArtGalleryOpenings.com
2006 Artist in Residence - St Joseph’s Girls School, Altona.
exhibitions
2023 Abstraction, Five Walls, Footscray, Melbourne. group show
2020 Blue, Blackstone Gallery, Newcastle, Finalist and First Highly Commended. group show
2020 Thresholds of Knowing, East Brunswick Cultural Hub, East Brunswick. solo show
2019 Weather the Weather, New York Hall of Science, New York. group show
2019 THE APOLLO 11 - Eleven artists responding creatively via video art to the 1969 Moon landing event.
The Project Space, Geelong - Victoria, Parkes Observatory - NSW, NASA Deep Space Communications Complex - ACT, Scienceworks Melbourne, Coolart Nature Reserve - Victoria, and The Franklin Institute Science Museum in - Philadelphia
2019 Mission Control, Coolart Nature Reserve - Victoria. Group show
2019 Space Time, The Memo Gallery, Healesville, Victoria
2018 AstroLight Festival, Scienceworks, Spottswood, Melbourne
2018 Deeper Darker Brighter, Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorne, Melbuorne - duo show
2018 Submerge, Orchard Gallery, Manhattan, New York - group show
2017 Lakes of Colour, Launchpad, Cremorne, Melbourne - trio show
2016 The M Collection Art Award - finalist - Gallerysmith, North Melbourne - group show
2016 40 x 40 Art Show, Brunswick St. Gallery. Fitzroy - group show.
2015 In Space, Banyule Art Award for Works on Paper - finalit
Hatch Contemporary Art Space, Ivanhoe - group show
2015 Pixel, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Abbotsford, Melbourne - group show
2015 A Place For Space, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy - solo show
2014 Wide Open Digital 2, Online exhibition, California – group show
2014 Small Works Exhibition, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy – group show
2014 A4 Art Australia, Herring Island, Melbourne – group show
2013 Paint Purpose, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy – group show
2013 Mapology St Vincent’s Hospital, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy – solo show
2013 Art in Science, Science in Art, St Vincent’s Gallery, Fitzroy – group show
2012 Advance Australia Fair, Toyota Gallery, Port Melbourne – group show
2012 Small Works Exhibition, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy - group show
2012 Urban Creatures, Toyota Community Spirit Exhibition, Port Melbourne – group show
2011 Mapology Melbourne – Forty Five Downstairs – solo show
2011 Linden Postcard Show – Linden Gallery – group show
2010 Secrets of Your City – 69 Smith Street Gallery – group show
2010 Small Works Exhibition – Brunswick Street Gallery – group show
2010 Pinhole Photography Exhibition – 69 Smith Street Gallery – group show
2009 Your Space - 69 Smith Street Gallery – group show
​
moving image
2019 'Apollo Dreaming', video collaboration with James Josephides
2018 ‘Catching Light’, Director and imagery. (animator – James Josephides)
2018 'DEEPER WIDER FASTER', Co-director and Lead Visualiser. (animator – James Josephides)
art related work history
2019 Project Manager, THE APOLLO 11, video exhibition
2019 Project Manager/Curator, Mission Control.
2017 - 2018 Project Manager, DEEPER DARKER BRIGHTER exhibition
1998 Front of House Manager, Fringe Festival, Hobart
1997 Project Manager/programmer, Hitchcock Festival, Cineama Afterdark, Hobart.
1996 - 1998 Manager/administrator, programmer, Afterdark Art House Cinema, Hobart.
1992 - 1995 Gallery Assistant, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
educational qualifications
2023 Master of Art Curatorship, Melbourne University
2010 Master of Civil Celebrations, (cultural studies), Monash University
2007 Graduate Diploma, Civil Celebrations, Monash University
2003 Honours, Cinema Studies, University of Melbourne (withdrawn)
2003 Graduate Diploma, Cinema Studies, University of Melbourne
1995 Honours, Art Theory, University of Tasmania (withdrawn)
1994 Bachelor of Fine Art, University of Tasmania
S
selected media/press
​
2019 Radio interview - 3RRR, Melbourne
2018 'Astronomy Inspires Artists" - online, Swinburne News
2018 'Deeper Darker Brighter Lights Up the Town Hall Gallery", online, Zilla and Brock
2018 'Stellar Exhibition in Creative Space', print, Progress Leader
2018 Radio interview - Joy Radio, Melbourne
2018 Radio interview - 3WBC, Melbourne
2017 'Painting the Universe', print, Art Edit, Magazine
2016 'EATT Magazine Podcast with Pamela Bain', featuring segments from her interview with astronaut and former Commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield, EATT Magazine
authorships
2014 Articles - ‘Observations of an Astronaut’, Parts one and two, EATT Magazine www.eattmag.com
2014 Article, ‘Breaking Bad in White Underpants’, EATT Magazine
2013 Book, ‘A Structural Chronology of St. Vincent Hospital’, historical support material for the exhibition Mapology St Vincent's Hospital. Libraries Australia ID No. 67359440
​
awards and other
2018 Director’s Excellence in Outreach Award, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology
2016 Finalist - The M Collection Art Award, Gallerysmith, North Melbourne
​
2015 Finalist - In Space, Banyule Art Award for Works on Paper, Hatch Contemporary Art Space, Ivanhoe, Melbourne
​
2008 The Damien West Award – demonstrating the best performance overall in the studies for the Graduate Diploma of Civil Ceremonies and Cultural Studies. Monash University
​
1994 AGDA Award, for most outstanding student port folio in Tasmania, School of Art, University of Tasmania
​
biography
Pamela Bain’s art practice explores themes of spatial orientation and relationship with ourselves and environments both near and cosmically far. Her bio-morphic imagery brings a sense of nature and biology, thus human connection, with outer space, to her oeuvre.
​
Graduating from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Fine Art, Pam excelled in the studios of Painting, Print Making and Graphic Design. Moving to Melbourne in 1998, Pam gained 4 additional degrees in a variety of areas including a Graduate Diploma of Cinema Studies and a Master of Art Curatorship at the University of Melbourne.
​
Pamela's early interest in the Universe a has influenced a body of work collectively named, BIOTIC COSMIC which observes that we and the Universe share mutual composition and, thus, relationship. BIOTIC COSMIC also carries through similar commentary relating to Pam’s previous project, MAPOLOGY: interpreting cartographic layouts with an organic/biological style in order to signify the mutative nature of maps, the changing world around us and our place within it. Where MAPOLOGY relates to a personal orientation within geographical settings and making foreign environs familiar, BIOTIC COSMIC articulates similar motivations: to know where we are and to feel connected.
​
In 2016 Pam was invited to a ‘live to the sky’ astrophysics observation of the Universe hosted by Swinburne University of Technology. This experience enabled the artist to connect more profoundly with her muse and has resulted in a body of work produced as an In-House Artist and then Artist in Residence - with Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. Entering the rarefied world of physics, data and deep space phenomenon advanced Pam’s creative evolution.
​
Fascinated with deep space phenomena such as supernovae, considerations of life and death have also crept into Pam’s sub-text. Her interpretations of stellar explosions also ponder the nature of light, dark and the shadowy in between inherent to the cosmic mysterious. An important context for Pam is also the regenerative nature of the Universe via the stellar explosion - ejecting elements out into space which coalesce to create new stars, thus, replenishing the cosmos with new nutrients.
​
Pamela has also embarked upon a personal direction that seeks to integrate sensory art engagement methods with her two dimensional work via haptic exploration and sound - offering access for sight impaired audiences. With a sight disability herself, (hypermetropia and glaucoma), Pam also draws a connection between the augmented nature of observatories and telescopes harnessed in the study of the Universe. In so doing, she comments that sensory assistance mediates our understanding of the cosmos and, in Pam's personal life, the immediate world around her. For the artist these instruments of science and astronomy, like her glasses and assistive technology, become portals into other worlds and magnify that which is hidden or less visible to the naked eye.
​
As an experimental artist working from her East Brunswick studio in Melbourne, Pam continually invents new methods and instruments of mark making that meld with more traditional materials such as paints, inks, pastels and pencils. She has achieved exciting results via oxidization, collage, photography and digital processes. Due to such exploratory work and creative breakthroughs, Pam considers art and science to be closely bound counterparts, as each field carries with it a sense of wonder, potential for experimentation, the testing of methods, the opportunity for deep inquiry, and the prospect of discovery and revelation.
​
​Pam is a member of the Astronomical Society of Victoria and the Mount Burnett Observatory where star gazing brings Pam closer to her subject via her telescope, a Saxon eight inch Dobsonian. This, together with her excursions to NASA, Houston, the Kennedy Space Centre and ongoing space-related research, has informed her series of light spectacles, hypothetical planets, speculative space-scapes, and cosmic possibilities.
​
The artist’s interview with former astronaut and Commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield, also melded art with science offering much creative nourishment when delving into the role of artist as aesthetic interpreter of the cosmos.
​
​
​
​