Vivian Lynn : Biography
Lynn, Vivian. Educated Wellington Girls' College; Canterbury University College School of Art 1949-51-DFA; Auckland Teachers' College 1952-Dip Tchg; Postgraduate study and fact-finding study Honolulu Academy of Arts, Pratt Graphic Centre New York City and Tamarind Institute Albuquerque USA 1972.
Awarded QE11 Arts Council grants 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983; Advisory Committee on Women's Affairs grant 1983 Trustees of the National Library grant 1984; Wellington Polytechnic School of Design Research grant to international experimental studios Bauhaus, Dessau, and related studies Berlin and Potsdam, Germany 1992-93.
Until 1996 she was a lecturer in drawing and design, Schools of Architecture and Design, Victoria University / Wellington Polytechnic. Travelled widely conducting research and professional practise in Europe, USA, Egypt and the Pacific. Research included feminist and, post-modern culture and theory.
Selected exhibitions in city galleries and museums:
- Auckland City gallery, Contemporary New Zealand Painting 1963, New Zealand Painting 1966, New Zealand Drawing 1976, New Zealand Prints1977, Aspects of Recent New Zealand Art: anxious images 1984, Aspects of Recent New Zealand Art: Sculpture 2 1986.
- National Art Gallery Shed 11 Wellington Content/Context: A survey of Recent New Zealand Art 1986, Museum of New Zealand Wellington Guarden Gates1993, City Art Gallery Wellington Caryatid 1986, Alter Image 1993, Spin Versor Versari. 1997.
- Manawatu Art Gallery: Mantles, Maladies, Mutations and Prussian Blue 1999-2000.
- Govett-Brewster Gallery New Plymouth Sculpture Project: The Gates of the Goddess 1985-86, Sharp and Shiny 1997.
- City Gallery Christchurch Asherim (detail of Passage) 1984, Art school 125: 50’s Models series 2008.
- Artists’ alternative events: F1 New Zealand Sculpture Project Wellington 1982, ANZART- in- Hobart Australia 1983.
Works in public and private collections in New Zealand, Europe and USA. See entry in Dictionary of Women Artists, Delia Gaze, Fitzroy Dearborn 1997.
Represented by Mark Hutchins Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand.
Vivian Lynn : practice
Vivian Lynn began her career as a painter but by 1968 abandoned oil paint on canvas to embark on series of works using diverse materials and technologies. By 1973 she had developed the conceptual practice she is known for which incorporate hair and industrial materials.
For many years Lynn used the morphology of the human body in her work by juxtaposing its charged sites of hair, skin and brain with correspondences in architecture such as steps, gates, doors, columns, factory, cathedral and house. She says, "Our bodies are mediated by cultural codes, my interest is in dislocating and transgressing these codes in ways that makes them tangible."