Jesse Boylan is an artist who lives on Djaara country in Central Victoria, Australia. Jesse is interested in expanded documentary practice and the role art plays in environmental and social justice issues. They like to collaborate with others and regularly co-makes with Linda Dement and V. Barratt as Bonedirt. Jesse is a member of the Atomic Photographers Guild, an international group who aim to render visible all aspects of the nuclear age, and works for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Australia). They also regularly teach within the School of Art at RMIT University, Melbourne.

CV | 2024

Born 1986, Sydney, Australia.

Education:
2020 – Current: PhD Candidate, School of Art, RMIT University
2012 – 2015: Master of Fine Art (Photomedia), Monash University, Melbourne.
2005 – 2007: Bachelor of Fine Art (Photography), RMIT University, Melbourne.

Selected Exhibitions:
2024:

  • Where there is wind (there will be dust), Projection, Murray Art Museum Albury, Victoria.

2023:

  • Rupture, with V. Barratt, Linda Dement, Luke Harrald and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Light. Adelaide, South Australia.

  • At the end of the day, Castlemaine Art Museum, Terrace Projection Commission, Castlemaine, Victoria.

2022:

  • Dispersal, with Tessa Rex, Yul Scarf and Half Life Collective, as part of Southern Western, curated by Jane Polkinghorne and Gareth Hart, Mildura Arts Centre, Mildura, Victoria, 19 February - 1 May, 2022.

  • Rupture, with V. Barratt and Linda Dement, LIVEWORKS, Performance Space, Carriageworks, Sydney, NSW.

  • Echoes, with Lumina, Biennale di Fotografia Femminile, Casa del Mantegna Mantova, Italy.

  • Neverland and the End of the World, Tangent Collective, Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival, Jimei Citizen Square Exhibition Hall, Xiamen, China, November, 2022.

2021:

  • Rising gently about here, collaboration with Kylie Banyard, biannual La Trobe Art Institute façade commission, Bendigo, Victoria. November 2021 – March 2022.

  • The Smallest Measure & The Care Project, Stanley Street Gallery, Darlinghurst, NSW. 11-26 February, 2021.

  • A Particular Being, Lumina Collective, Perth Centre for Photography. 20 February – 3 April, 2021.

  • A Particular Being, Lumina Collective, New England Regional Art Museum, Armadale, NSW, August - October, 2021.

  • The Smallest Measure, Castlemaine State Festival, Castlemaine, Victoria. 19 March – 4 April, 2021.

  • The Smallest Measure, Counihan Gallery, Brunswick, Victoria. 17 April – 23 May, 2021

  • Portrait of an Interior, Poimena Gallery, Launceston, July-August, 2021

2019:

  • Rupture, with Linda Dement & Virginia Barratt, The Big Anxiety Festival, UNSW, Studio One, Esme Timbery Creative Practice Lab (ETCPL), UNSW Kensington, NSW. 31st October, 2019.

  • Bladerunner was set in November 2019, KINGS ARI, Melbourne. 26 Oct 2019–16 Nov 2019. Alex Moulis, Andrea Steves, Crunch Kefford, Gem Romuld, Jessie Boylan, Linda Dement (code), Tessa Rex, Yul Scarf

  • Nuclear Visions: Atomic Photographers Guild, Allcott Gallery, Hanes Art Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, September 20 – October 31, 2019. Curated by Elin o’Hara Slavick & Robert Del Tredici. 

  • Apocalypse: Then and Now, The Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, February 13, 2019 – April 5, 2019.

  • Echoes, Lumina Collective, Art Gallery of Ballarat, 15 December, 2018 – 10 March, 2019.

  • Black Mist Burnt Country, Burrinja Gallery, Upwery, Victoria, Dec 2018 – February, 2019.

2018:

  • Rupture, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria. With Linda Dement, Virginia Barratt and Jenna Tuke. September 2018 – February 2019.

  • Black Mist Burnt Country, Testing the Bomb, Maralinga and Australian Art, National Touring exhibition, Western Plains Cultural Centre, 9/12/2017 – 25/3/2018, Penrith Regional Gallery, 26/5 – 29/7/2018, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 25/8 – 18/11/2018

  • Lumina as part of The Family of No Man, Cosmos, Arles, France

  • Women by Women, Lumina Collective Public Art project for International Women’s Day 2018, Bendigo Regional Art Gallery, Queensland College of Art, SUN STUDIOS, Melbourne Polytechnic, Launceston Aquatic Centre and EY Centre 200 George Street by Mirvac, Sydney.

  • In Your Dreams, UNSW Galleries, Paddington, curated by Felicity Fenner and Cherie McNair. January 6 – April 7, 2018. Australian Centre for Photography presented in partnership with the UNSW Galleries in association with Sydney Festival, UNSW Centre for Ideas and the Grand Challenge on Inequality.

2017:

  • Lumina, Black Eye Gallery, Darlinghurst, June 08 – 19, 2017. Launch of Lumina Collective. With Donna Bailey, Chloe Bartram, Jessie Boylan, Aletheia Casey, Anna Maria Antionette d’Addario, Lyndal Irons, Morganna Magee, Sarah Rhodes.

  • Amalgam & Grey Matter (with Warwick Baker) as part of Alternative Destinations, Castlemaine State Festival, Newstead Arts Hub, Newstead, Victoria, March 17-26.

  • Black Mist Burnt Country, Art Gallery of Ballarat, 3/12/2016 – 5/2/2017, Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, 24/2 – 23/4/2017, Gold Coast City Gallery, 27/5 – 9/7/2017, Townsville Pinnacles Gallery, 22/7 – 3/9/2017, Glasshouse Regional Gallery, 16/9 – 26/11/2017, Western Plains Cultural Centre, 9/12/2017 – 25/3/2018.

2016:

  • Nuclear including Ten Minutes to Midnight & Ngurini at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide

  • Portrait of a Whistleblower, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide

  • Shift as part of Black Mist Burnt Country, National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Rocks, Sydney

2015:

  • Daily life of actions, with Tim Price, TCB Melbourne

  • Atomic Photographers Guild, Hiroshima Bank, Hiroshima, Japan 

  • Portrait of a Whistleblower, with Nuclear Futures, The Block, QUT, Brisbane

  • Ngurini with Linda Dement, Luke Harrald, Paul Brown, Yalata Community and Nuclear Futures, The Block, QUT, Brisbane

  • Portrait of a Whistleblower, Courthouse Gallery, Balaklava, South Australia, part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival

  • Fourteen Ounces II, White Night, Melbourne, Union Lane

  • Nuclear Photographs, Uranium Film Festival, Atomic Photographers Guild, Quebec, Canada

2014:

  • Frühlings Salon / Between Worlds, Featuring the work of the following Australian & New Zealand photographic artists, Galerie Pavlova, Berlin

  • Fourteen Ounces II, Castlemaine Market Building, Public Art Commission for the Mount Alexander Shire Council, Photographic Lightboxes

  • Flow of Voices with Jacky Green, videos from Borroloola and McArthur River, NT, Cross Arts, Kings Cross, Sydney

2013:

  • Fourteen Ounces, at The Colour Factory, Fitzroy, Victoria

  • Flight, Upstairs at the Comma Hotel, Castlemaine Fringe Festival, Victoria

  • Flight, show as part of the Contemporary Photography from Oceania projections (curated by Katrin Koenning and Daniel Boetker-Smith), at the Obscura Photo Festival, George Town, Penang, Malaysia, 25th June

  • On This Site (Bateman’s Bay), at the Kaori Gallery, Canberra City, ACT

  • Maralinga Pieces, shown at the Byron Bay International Film Festival, Byron Bay, NSW

  • Hidden Valley premiere at the Environmental Film Festival, Melbourne, Victoria

  • Flow of Voices, with Jack Green, Photographs and video from the Gulf of Carpentaria, at the Arena Project Space, Fitzroy, Vic, Feb 14-24

2012:

  • Behind the Atom Curtain, Life and Death in the Nuclear Age, with the Atomic Photographers Guild, Rocky Flats Cold War Museum, Arvada, Colorado, September 2012, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle, Washington, September, 2012, Museum of Modern Art, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

  • Operation Buffalo, as part of Manifestations of Now, We Australians exhibition, No Vacancy Gallery, Federation Square, Melbourne, Victoria.

  • Behind the Atom Curtain, Life and Death in the Nuclear Age, by the Atomic Photographers Guild, at Midland Atelier, as part of FotoFreo, Perth, Western Australia (Curated).

  • Maralinga Pieces. Premiered at the 2012 International Uranium Film Festival, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Selected for Night-Sun-Day screening program, The Desert Equinox Exhibition, Broken Hill, Australia. Official Selection for the SoCal Fim Festival, California, USA, 28 September 2012

2011:

  • Behind the Atom Curtain, Life and Death in the Nuclear Age, by the Atomic Photographers Guild, at the Sol Mednick Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, USA.

2010:

  • Artificial Lines, Arena Project Space, Fitzroy, Victoria

  • Sajeen/Prisoner, Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy, Victoria

  • The Sound of Jets; 69 Smith Street Gallery, Fitzroy, Victoria

2009:

  • AUtonomies, Huw Davies Gallery, Canberra, and ArtLab, Adelaide

2006-08:

  • Inhabited; Touring; Gasworks Albert Park, VIC, Sustainable Living Festival Melbourne, Dudley House Gallery, Bendigo, Watch This Space Gallery, Alice Springs, ‘Shifting Ground’ Festival, Casuarina Library, Darwin, Darwin Fringe Festival, Synergy Gallery, Northcote, VIC, Higher Ground, Adelaide, 2008 Fringe Festival.

Publications

Essays, Articles, Papers:

Articles, Reviews, Interviews:

Published in: Light Journeys; Exhibiting Women Photographers of Australia, Time Machine issue 6 (Atomic), Right Now, Human Rights in Australia, The Saturday Paper, Arena Magazine, Chain Reaction, Sydney Morning Herald, Workers International, The Big Issue, Tennant Creek Times, Koori Mail, National Indigenous Times, How to Make Trouble and Influence People: Pranks, Hoaxes, Graffiti and Political Mischief-Making from across Australia (book), Written, compiled and researched by Iain McIntyre, Published by Breakdown Press, 2009/2013, Maralinga by Frank Walker, published by Hachette, 2014. PhotoForum New Zealand Momento ‘History of Other Places’ 2015.

 Grants, Residencies, Awards & Fellowships:

  • 2021: Performance Space Micro-fellowship, with Linda Dement and Virginia Barratt.

  • 2020: Australian Network for Art and Technology, IDEATE grant. With Linda Dement and Virgina Barratt.

  • 2020: Australia Council for the Arts, Resilience Fund.

  • 2020: Regional Arts Victoria (Care Project).

  • 2020: Bundanon Trust, with Linda Dement and Virginia Barratt, Frances Barrett and Victoria Hunt.

  • 2018: Bundanon Trust, with Linda Dement and Virginia Barratt.

  • 2016: Australia Council for the Arts New Work Grant through Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups program.

  • 2016: Burrinja Cultural Centre, Upwey, Victoria.

  • 2016: Bundanon Trust, Artist in Residence Program, Shoalhaven, NSW.

  • 2016: Finalist (with Nuclear Futures), Screengrab7 video art award, Pinnacles Gallery in Townsville, Australia.

  • 2015-2016: Artists or Curators Residency Grant through Museums and Galleries NSW.

  • 2014-2016: Nuclear Futures Arts Project (Key Artist), Australia Council for the Arts.

  • 2014-2015: Artist in Residence Yalata Aboriginal Community, South Australia as part of Nuclear Futures.

  • 2014-2015, Artist in Residence, Balaklava South Australia, as part of Nuclear Futures.

  • 2014: Public Art Commission, Mount Alexander Shire Council, Castlemaine, VIC.

  • 2012: Copyright Agency Limited Creative Fund.

  • 2010-2011: Australia Council for the Arts ArtStart Grant.

  • 2018, 2012, 2009 & 2007: Finalist Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, HOTA, Gold Coast.

  • 2015: Winner of the Adelaide Law School Images of Justice Photography Competition (Professional category).

  • 2013: Winner of the 3CR Community Radio “Pursuit of Truth Award” for the Fukushima 2 Years On Radio Documentary. 2009: Finalist, Spirit of Youth Awards.

  • 2009, 2010: Finalist, Head On Alternative Portrait Awards, ACP, Sydney, 2009 & 2010.

  • 2007: The JB Seed, for the touring of ‘Inhabited’.

  • 2007: St. Vincent’s Hospital Artist in Residence Program.