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Jordan Marani

Jordan Marani makes darkly humourous work involving personal narratives, cynical observations of the human condition and an exploration of loss and the past. Through painting and sculpture employing bright colour, humour and word play, he explores the funny side of the dark side. 

From 2008-2011 Jordan Marani was co-founder and director of Hell Gallery. His work has been exhibited at Tate Modern, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Spinnerei Leipzig, Shepparton Art Museum, Static Gallery Liverpool, Switchback Gallery, 200 Gertrude Street, Daine Singer, Neon Parc, Utopian Slumps, Ryan Renshaw, Ray Hughes Gallery, Powell Street Gallery and at ARIs including Death Be Kind, Inflight, Seventh, and West Space. 

Jordan Marani
 

Jordan Marani makes darkly humorous work involving personal narratives, cynical observations of the human condition and explorations of family, loss and the past. Through painting and sculpture employing bright colour, humour and word play, he explores the funny side of the dark side. 

Marani makes art of the everyday, reflecting his immediate surroundings and community. His work is drawn from such crude and everyday references as suburban life, popular culture, booze, football, the art world and family history. Early works used materials from scavenged, recycled and reclaimed rubbish, such as paintings on boards salvaged from skips, bottletops, and food packaging, and from basic and impoverished materials, such as cardboard and house paint. Recent works continue to utilise humble materials, such as bed sheets and handkerchiefs, alongside more formal and polished works on board and canvas. Marani blends lowbrow culture with high art, with an insistence on the value of the working class and crass. 

Over the last 30 years Marani’s work has been littered with profanity drawn from the ugly vernacular of Australian politics and the pub. He started creating text and four-letter word paintings in the late 1980s, with a series of ‘Shit Paintings’, and has been exploring word play, profanity and the joys of four-letter words ever since. His multi-faceted practice includes figurative and narrative-driven paintings alongside ongoing series of text-paintings, installation and found-object sculptures.

  • From 2008-2011 Jordan was co-founder and director of Hell Gallery. His work has been exhibited at Tate Modern, the National Gallery of Victoria, NADA New York, Minor Attractions Art Fair, London, the Spinnerei Leipzig, SOCIAL Hobart, Shepparton Art Museum, Static Gallery Liverpool, Switchback Gallery, 200 Gertrude Street, Daine Singer, Neon Parc, Utopian Slumps, Ryan Renshaw, Ray Hughes Gallery, Powell Street Gallery and at ARIs including Death Be Kind, Inflight, Seventh, and West Space. 

    He has participated in residencies at the Leipzig International Art Programme in Germany, Driving Creek Pottery in Aotearoa New Zealand, Police Point Artist-in-Residence Program Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Australia Council Liverpool Residency and Gertrude Contemporary. His work is held in the collections of the Yarra City Council, Merri-bek Art Collection, LIA Leipzig, and Ararat Textile Art Museum.

  • Jordan Marani

    Education/ Professional
    1988 – 1990    Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting), Victoria College, Prahran
    2008 – 2011    Founder/ Co-director, Hell Gallery, Melbourne

    Solo exhibitions
    2023  NOBODY’S HOME, Daine Singer, Melbourne
    2022  NOBODY, Social, Hobart
    2020  NOBODY, Daine Singer, Melbourne
    2019  WORD ResArtis, Melbourne
    2018  Autobiography, Daine Singer, Melbourne
    2016  SHIT Happens, Ararat Regional Art Gallery, Ararat
    2016  Plonk, Daine Singer, Melbourne
    2015  BULLSHIT, Drawing Wall commission, Shepparton Art Museum, Shepparton
    2014  Colourful Language: The Charm Offensive, Daine Singer, Melbourne
    2013  Idiot as an Artist, West Space, Melbourne
    2013  Xmas is a Four-Letter Word, Daine Singer, Melbourne
    2011  Ten Pound Poms and Other Stories, Static Gallery, Liverpool
    2011  The Rest is Silence, Death Be Kind Gallery, Melbourne (with Jess Johnson)
    2010  Who cut the cheese? Two giants of contemporary art talk frankly of monumental tasks, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne (with Jess Johnson)
    2009  Home is Where My Hell Is, Gippsland Centre for Art and Design (with Jess Johnson)
    2009  Hell is Other People, Inflight Gallery, Hobart (with Jess Johnson)
    2009  Flippin Heck, Hell Gallery, Melbourne (with Jess Johnson)
    2008  Hellraiser: The Directors Cut, Hell Gallery, Melbourne (with Jess Johnson)
    2007  This is Not a Love Schlong, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne (with Jess Johnson)
    2001  Recent Works by Jordan Marani, Yelza, Melbourne
    1996  For Your **** Pleasure, West Space, Melbourne
    1994  Liquid Assets, Saratoga Night Club, Melbourne
    1993  Binge, Studio 12, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne
    1992  Head, Studio 12, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne

    Group exhibitions
    2024  Hard Rubbish, Daine Singer, Melbourne
    2024  Minor Attractions Art Fair, London, UK
    2024 MELA, Alta Forma, Melbourne
    2024  Works from the TAMA Collection, Ararat Textile Art Museum
    2024  Fly Little Bird Gallery, Melbourne
    2023  Manifesto, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne
    2022  Paul Guest Drawing Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery
    2022  Geelong Contemporary Art Prize, Geelong Gallery
    2021  Bundoora Homestead, Melbourne
    2021  Spring1883, Melbourne
    2020  Paul Guest Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery
    2020  Daine Singer at FAIR PRESENTED BY NADA
    2020  Daine Singer at Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne
    2020  Art Aid Gippsland, Gippsland Art Gallery
    2020  Small Mercies, Creative Spaces, Melbourne
    2019  Hauswerk, McClelland Gallery
    2019  Arthur Guy Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery
    2019  Geelong Print Print Prize, Geelong Art Gallery
    2019  Castlemaine Experimental Print Prize, Castlemaine Art Museum
    2019  McGivern Art Prize, Maroondah Art Gallery
    2019  Incinerator Art Award, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
    2019  Bayside Contemporary Art Price, Bayside Art Gallery, Melbourne
    2019  Lo Fi High, Toot Artspace, Melbourne
    2018  Bayside Contemporary Art Price, Bayside Art Gallery, Melbourne2018 Incinerator Art Award, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
    2018  Noel Counihan Commemorative Art Award, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne
    2018  Sedimente, Spinnerei Werkshau/ LIA Leipzig, Germany
    2018  NADA New York, USA
    2018  Winter Rundgang, LIA Leipzig, Germany
    2017  Affects on Absorption, LIA Leipzig, Germany
    2017  Open House, True Estate, Melbourne
    2017  Icon, Richmond Town Hall, Melbourne
    2017  Restless, VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
    2017  Bundoora Homestead, Melbourne
    2016  ACCA in the City, public art, ACCA, Melbourne
    2016  Invited, Spinnerei Leipzig, Germany
    2016  Is this thing on? Counihan Gallery, Melbourne
    2015  Science Friction, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne
    2015  Spring 1883, The Establishment, Sydney
    2015  The 3rd Bus Projects Editions, Bus Projects, Melbourne
    2014  I Probably Don’t Like You, curated by Nick Devlin and Fergus Binns, The Alderman, Melbourne
    2014  Faux Museum, c3, Melbourne
    2014  Spring 1883 Art Fair, Melbourne
    2014  Melbourne Art Fair Pop-Up, curated by Barry Keldoulis, Melbourne Art Fair at Cutler & Co, Melbourne
    2014  No Werk, curated by Ace Wagstaff, Trocadero, Melbourne
    2014  Industrial Estate, curated by Kym Maxwell, Melbourne
    2014  Moreland Summer Show, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne
    2013  Drunk vs. Stoned III, curated by Geoff Newton, Neon Parc, Melbourne
    2012  Deakin Small Sculpture Prize, Finalist, Deakin University Gallery, Victoria
    2010  No Soul For Sale, Tate Modern, London
    2010  Harrell Fletcher: The Sound We Make Together, National Gallery of Victoria
    2010  NotFair, Block Projects, Melbourne
    2010  The Memorial, Death Be Kind Gallery, Melbourne
    2009  Lorne Sculpture Exhibition, Lorne
    2008  Honk If You Love Contemporary Art, Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane
    2008  Flux Capacitor, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne
    2008  Dirty Popsicles, Peloton Gallery, Sydney2008   Informal Rituals, TCB Gallery, Melbourne
    2007  Cut n’ Paste, Peloton Gallery, Sydney
    2000 – 2006  Helen Gory Gallery, Artists Garden, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Victoria Park Gallery
    1990s  National Gallery of Victoria, George Paton Gallery, West Space, 200 Gertrude Street, Geelong Regional Art Gallery, Linden Gallery, Monash Gallery of Art, Tolarno Gallery, Deutscher Gallery, Ray Hughes Gallery

    Residencies
    2025  (Forthcoming) Police Point Artist-in-Residence Program, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery
    2023  Driving Creek Pottery Residency, Coromandel Aotearoa, New Zealand
    2019  Leipzig International Art Programme, Germany
    2017  Leipzig International Art Programme, Germany
    2011  Australia Council Liverpool Residency
    1991-1993  Gertrude Street Studios

    Collections
    LIA, Leipzig
    Yarra City Council
    Merri-bek Art Collection
    Ararat Regional Art Gallery

    Bibliography
    2022  Andrew Harper, “Howling into the void”, The Mercury, 16-17 April 2022
    2019  Jane O’Neill, ‘Hauswerk’, catalogue essay, McClelland Gallery
    2018  Laura Couttie, 'Autobiography', catalogue essay, Daine Singer, 2018
    2017  David Wlazlo, 'Restless at VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery', Memo Review, 2018
    2016  Sarah Werkmeister, 'Jordan Marani paints four-letter words', Art Guide, Australia
    2016  Claire Capel-Stanley, 'Jordan Marani: Shit Happens' Art Almanac, Australia
    2014  Roger Taylor, State of the Arts, PBS FM, 25 November 2014
    2014  Steven Rendall, ‘Painting, writing, colour and profanity’, catalogue essay, Daine Singer
    2014  Madeleine Dore, ‘Pop-ups level the playing field’, ArtsHub, 4 November 2014
    2014  Dan Rule, ‘Furniture makes way for fine arts in Heidelberg West factory exhibition Industrial Estate’, The Age, 8 January 2014, p.20
    2013  Robert Nelson, ‘A year of visual-arts invention from here and afar’, The Age, 27 December 2013
    2013  Jonathan Nichols, ‘Xmas: Jordan Marani’, Stamm, October 2013
    2013  Dan Rule, ‘Xmas is a Four-Letter Word’, The Age, 7 September 2013
    2013  Dylan Rainforth, ‘Take a larrikin tour’, The Age, 4 September 2013
    2013  Ace Wagstaff, Smartarts, RRR FM, 12 September 2013
    2013  Roger Taylor, State of the Arts, PBS FM, 7 September 2013
    2013  Nat Thomas, ‘Dodging a Bullet and Going Straight to Hell’, catalogue essay, Xmas is a Four-Letter Word, Daine Singer, Melbourne2013  ‘Jordan Marani: Xmas is a Four-Letter Word’, The Thousands, 31 August 2013
    2013  Xmas is a Four-Letter Word, catalogue, Daine Singer, Melbourne
    2013  Meg Watson, Concrete Playground
    2010  ‘Hell Gallery Headed for London‘, Stateline Victoria, ABC
    2010  Art Nation, ABC TV, 9/5/2010; 7.30 Report, ABC TV, 1 May 2010


 

SELECTED WORKS