Biography
Lives and works in Norwich, UK.
gretchen geraets (b. Aotearoa New Zealand, 1979) is an artist who works across sculpture, photography, installation, and writing, navigating idiosyncratic, private moments, bodily dissociation, absence and recall. She is interested in the intimacies of personal lived experience and the everyday as erotic. Her research is informed by feminist thought, situated knowledge, temporality, and literature.
Currently, geraets is undertaking a long-form project 'Mother lode', developing new bodies of work that seek to make motherhood's productivity visible with the support of an Elephant Trust Grant. Concurrently, she is researching unique ways of working with bronze to interweave personal experience/s using her body as material with the support of an Arts Council England DYCP grant. Following her ARiM residency, she continues to explore the home as a site of creative practice and develop methods of presenting her work one-to-one.
geraets is a lecturer (0.4) and MA Photography subject leader at Norwich University of the Arts. She is a member of the Association of Photographers’ Education Working Group, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an editorial member of the British Journal of Arts and Humanities, UniversePG. She is the co-founder and former co-director of artist-run initiatives Canary Gallery in Auckland and g&A studios in Sydney. She received a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Auckland University of Technology, Aotearoa New Zealand (2001), and her Master of Fine Art with distinction from Goldsmiths, University of London (2014).
Current Teaching
Lecturer, BA and MA Photography, (0.4) Norwich University of the Arts, UK: Jan 2017–
Subject leader, MA Photography, Norwich University of the Arts, UK: Aug 2018–Current Memberships
The Art Working Parents Alliance (AWP), UK: Oct 2022–
Editorial member of the British Journal of Arts and Humanities, UniversePG: Oct 2022–
Member, Association of Photographers' (AOP) Education Working Group, UK: Mar 2022–
Member, OutPOST, Norwich, UK: Nov 2021–
Facilitator, Modalities of Care Reading Group, Norwich, UK: 2021–
Fellow, The Higher Education Academy, (FHEA), UK: Aug 2018–
Member, Human Interfaces Research Group, Norwich University of the Arts, UK: 2017–
Selected awards, grants and residencies
2023 Eye Mama Book, longlist: 2023
2022 DYCP Award, Arts Council England, UK: 2022–2023
Research sabbatical, Norwich University of the Arts, UK: Oct–Nov 2022
An Artist Residency in Motherhood (ARiM), UK: Jul–Nov 2022
2021 The Elephant Trust Grant, UK: 2021–2022
2020 Freelands Foundation Emergency Grant, UK: 2020
Selected shows and projects
2023
Symposium presentation, Mother lode [third utterance], video presentation, Maternal Bodies Interdisciplinary Symposium, University of Birmingham: June 2023
Pamphlet, Foster, M. (ed.), 2023. Causal cast, Suffolk, UK: February
Wet Wet, Outpost Project Space, Norwich, UK (one-to-one presentations)
Mother lode, [first utter], Outpost Project Space, Norwich, UK (one-to-one presentations)
Outpost Studios Summer Show ’22, Outpost Project Space, Norwich, UK
studioUS, Primeyarc, Great Yarmouth, UK
2021
ARTMATTERS, Art Auction for Headway, Assembly House, Norwich, UK
Studio holder Show '21, OUTPOST Project Space, Norwich, UK
2020
Abs.: kunstortELEVENartspace, Museum Reutlingen, Reutlingen, DE
2019
Multiplicity-Individuality, Human Interfaces Creative Lab (H.I.C.L.), [Online]
Bax, B. (Ed.), Bax, Olivier (Art Editor), 2019. Ambit 235, London ([Magazine], Artist Page)
Geraets, J. 2019. Everything's something in place : writings, 1980-2015. Pokeno: Titus Books ([Book], cover Image)
Alma mater
MFA Fine Art, Distinction, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK: 2014
Bachelor of Visual Arts, First Class, Auckland University of Technology, NZ: 2001
Certificate in Intermediate Studies in Visual Arts, A-, Auckland Institute of Technology, NZ: 1998
Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Art, Norwich University of the Arts, UK: 2018
Selected contributions to communities and collaborations
2009–2015 Image maker, Alan & Gretchen Ltd, Photographic Collaborative, London, UK
2005–2006 Co-founder and director of g&A Studios, Sydney, AU
2003–2005 Co-founder and director of Canary Gallery, Auckland, NZ
Photography archive: Collaborations and commissions
Image makers, Alan & Gretchen Ltd, et al., 2003–2015
Font: Franklin Gothic URW Book/Demi