Biography
Lives and works in Norfolk, UK.
gretchen geraets (b. 1979, Aotearoa New Zealand) is an interdisciplinary artist who works across sculpture, photography, installation, and writing, navigating idiosyncratic, private moments, bodily dissociation, absence and recall. Her work explores the intimacies of lived experience, and the interstitial. Her research is informed by feminist thought, situated knowledge, temporality, and literature, and often investigates the role of the hermit in creative practice.
Current long-form projects include ‘Mother lode’, which develops new bodies of work that seek to make motherhood’s productivity visible, with initial support of an Elephant Trust Grant. Following a DYCP award, geraets continues to research unique ways of working with bronze to interweave personal experiences and use her body as material. Following her Artist Residency in Motherhood (ARiM) at HOME, she explores the home as a site of creative practice and is developing methods of presenting her work one-to-one.
geraets is a lecturer and subject leader in photography (0.4) at Norwich University of the Arts, a peer reviewer for Drawing, Research, Theory, Practice (DRTP) Journal, Intellect and a member of the Association of Photographers (AOP) Education Working Group. She is the co-founder and former co-director of artist-run spaces 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, and an MFA with distinction from Goldsmiths, London.
Select grants, funding and awards
2022 - DYCP Award, Arts Council England, UK, 2022 – 2023
2022 - Research Sabbatical, Norwich University of the Arts, UK, Oct – Nov
2021 - The Elephant Trust Grant, UK, 2021 – 2022
2020 - Freelands Foundation Emergency Grant, UK
2013 - Weissensee and Goldsmiths Exchange Programme, Kunsthochschule Weißensee, Berlin, DE and Goldsmiths, London, UK, 2013 – 2014
2013 - Pan Macmillan Art Space Award, Pan Macmillan Art Space, London, UK (collaboration)
2011 - Lürzer’s Archive, Best Automotive Photographers in the World, International (collaboration)
Select residencies
2024 - Staff studio research resident, Norwich University of the Arts, UK, Oct – Dec
2022 - An Artist Residency in Motherhood (ARiM), UK
2017 - kunstort ELEVEN residency, Starzach, DE
2014 - LoBe residency, Berlin, DE
Select editing and peer review
Peer Reviewer, Drawing Research Theory Practice (DRTP) Journal, Intellect, Bristol, 2025 – Present
Guest Editor, Special Issue 9.2, ‘Drawing Disobedient Bodies’, Drawing Research Theory Practice (DRTP) Journal, Intellect, Bristol, Dec 2024
Select shows and projects
2024 - Drawing disobedient bodies, DRTP, Special Issue 9.2, Dec (cover artwork)
2024 - Interview for Artquest, University of London, interviewed by Cristiana Bottigella, discussing my experience on the Artist Residency in Motherhood (AriM) (online interview)
2023 - Annual Open 2023, Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK (group show, video running on YouTube)
2023 - Mother lode, at ‘Maternal Bodies: Individual, Collective, Other Symposium’, Interdisciplinary Symposium, University of Birmingham, 15 Jun
2023 - Outpost Studio Holders Show, Outpost Project Space, Norwich, UK
2023 - Causal cast, Suffolk, UK. Foster, M. (Ed.), Feb (art & writing pamphlet)
2022 - Wet Wet, Outpost Project Space, UK (one-to-one presentations/exhibition)
2022 - Mother lode [first utter], Outpost Project Space, UK (solo)
2022 - Outpost Studios Summer Show ’22, Outpost Project Space, Norwich, UK (group show)
2022 - studioUS, Primeyarc, Gt Yarmouth, UK (group show)
2021 - Artmatters, Art Auction for Headway Charity, Norwich, UK (auction)
2021 - Studio Holder Show ‘21, Outpost Project Space, Norwich, UK (group show)
2020 - Abs.: kunstortELEVENartspace, Museum Reutlingen, Reutlingen, DE (group show)
2020 - Multiplicity-Individuality, Human Interfaces Creative Lab (H.I.C.L.) (group show, online)
2019 - Bax, B. (Ed.), Bax, Olivier (Art Editor), 2019. Ambit 235, London, UK (journal, artist page)
2019 - Geraets, J. 2019. Everything's something in place: writings, 1980-2015. Pokeno: Titus Books, NZ (cover artwork)
Select contributions to communities
Artist Working Parents Alliance, academic member, 2022 – Present
Education Working Group, academic member, Association of Photographers (AOP), Apr 2022 – Present
Modalities of Care Reading Group, facilitator, Norwich, 2021 – 2023
Of Animacy Reading Group: Debility, Capacity, Disability # 3, participant. Convened by Nella Aarne, Curator, Obsidian Coast, (online), 2021
Women’s Critical Reading Group (Slack Pussy, MayDay Rooms), participant, facilitated by Rosie Higham-Stainton, Norwich, 2019 – 2020
Senses Gone Awry - Chronic Pain, Bodies, Texts, and Emotions Reading Group, participant, with Dr Alicia Spencer-Hall, Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL, London, 2017
Co-founder and director of g&A Studios, Sydney, AU, 2005 – 2006
Co-founder and director of Canary Gallery, Auckland, NZ, 2003 – 2005
Alma mater
MFA Fine Art, Distinction, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK: 2014
Bachelor of Visual Arts, Auckland University of Technology, NZ: 2001
Certificate in Intermediate Studies in Visual Arts, Auckland Institute of Technology, NZ: 1998
Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Art, Norwich University of the Arts, UK: 2018
Select self-published
g&A studios (ed.). 2005. Unrealised Projects, Sydney: g&A studios
Curnow, B. (ed.). 2004. New New Zealand art, Auckland: Canary Gallery
Other activity
External examiner, BA Photography, University of Portsmouth, 2025 – present
Longlist, Eye Mama Book, International, 2023
Progressed to the final stage of the AHRC Techne competition for a full PhD studentship, UK, 2023
Progressed to the final stage of the Kingston University PhD studentship competition for a full studentship, UK, 2023
Photography archive
Image maker, collaboration and commissions, Alan & Gretchen Ltd, et al., 2003 – 2015
Font: Franklin Gothic URW Book/Medium