Joan Ross

Working from a deep love of nature and disdain for colonial superiority, Scottish Australian artist Joan Ross takes an honest approach to colonialism in Australia, penetrating the frequent whitewashing of Australia’s colonial past and present. Ross’ philosophical approach, that spans a range of media, is born from a desire to understand and critically engage with that history.  Fluoro and furious, Ross reimagines colonial imagery, imbuing each work with cultural references that make visible our ongoing complicitness in the colonial legacy. Using her trademark fluro yellow, Ross highlights the pervasiveness and impact of colonialism, focusing especially on the outcomes of greed, extinction of species and globalisation. 

Ross works across artforms including painting and drawing but is most interested in 3d digital printing, video & virtual reality. Commissioned by the Mordant & ACMI, Ross made Did you ask the river?, 2018 a virtual reality project where the intuitive or natural desire of users reveal that we are all part of the colonial problem. 

Ross arrives at Artspace following a survey show at the National Portrait Gallery, Those trees came back to me in my dreams, 2024-2025 where she was invited to select portraits from the collection and situate them alongside her own artworks. This project furthered the evolution of Ross’ criticism around ‘collecting’ and ‘collections.’ While exhibiting in many of Australia’s leading institutions, Ross does not shy away from critiquing the colonial imperative of those spaces. Using a large-scale projection to illuminate the National Gallery of Australia for example, Ross exhibited a digital animation Collectors Paradise, 2021 in which a large pink ham smashes exhibition vitrines normally housed within the Gallery itself.