Polly Borland’s practice has seen her expand and trouble the portraiture genre using both photography and soft sculpture. Borland’s surreal imaginings, equally strange and compelling, revel in the playful potentialities of composition and the body. The artist’s soft sculptural experimentations are used as adornment and shelter for her sitter, elsewhere they morph into their own subjects entirely. Famed for her early editorial work and portraiture—which saw her photograph the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, Nick Cave, Donald Trump, Susan Sontag, Monica Lewinsky and Cate Blanchett for a host of clients such as The Guardian, The New York Times and The New Yorker, Borland is one of Australia’s most internationally recognisable contemporary artists.

Selected Works
Dropdown IconOverview
Morph 12 2018

Small size:
archival pigment print
92 × 78.5 cm (Small)
Edition of 6 plus 3 artist's proofs

Large size:
archival pigment print
200 × 162.5 cm
Edition of 6 plus 3 artist's proofs

Morph 20 2018

archival pigment print
200.5 × 162.5 cm

Morph 17 2018

Small size:
archival pigment print
92 × 78.5 cm (Small)
Edition of 6 plus 3 artist's proofs

Large size:
archival pigment print
200 × 162.5 cm
Edition of 6 plus 3 artist's proofs

Her Majesty, The Queen, Elizabeth II (gold) 2001

Type C photograph
105.5 × 86.5 cm

Untitled (Nick Cave in a blue wig) 2010

type C photograph
111 × 93.9 cm

Polly Borland, Pollyverse, 2018.
Installation view, National Gallery of Victoria. Courtesy the artist and National Gallery of Victoria.

Bunny XI 2008

archival pigment print, AP3
66 × 91 cm

Bunny VIII 2004

cibachrome photograph
66 × 91 cm

Untitled (pink, green, orange) 2018

lenticular print
digital print on rice paper
mounted on Lexan and wood
50.5 × 76 × 3.5 cm

BOD 2022

cast aluminium with automotive paint, matte finish
61 × 42.5 × 27 cm
edition of 5 plus 2 artist's proofs

Freak 2016

tapestry
95 × 77 cm

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About

Polly Borland

Biography

Lives and works in Los Angeles, United Stated
Born 1959, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia

Polly Borland’s practice has seen her expand and trouble the portraiture genre using both photography and soft sculpture. Borland’s surreal imaginings, equally strange and compelling, revel in the playful potentialities of composition and the body. The artist’s soft sculptural experimentations are used as adornment and shelter for her sitter, elsewhere they morph into their own subjects entirely. Famed for her early editorial work and portraiture—which saw her photograph the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, Nick Cave, Donald Trump, Susan Sontag, Monica Lewinsky and Cate Blanchett for a host of clients such as The Guardian, The New York Times and The New Yorker, Borland is one of Australia’s most internationally recognisable contemporary artists.

Borland’s selected projects include The Babies at the Southbank’s Meltdown Festival, curated by Nick Cave, London (1999); ‘Australians’, a major commissioned solo exhibition, The National Portrait Galleries London and Canberra (2000); The Babies, the artist’s first monograph featuring an essay by Susan Sontag, published by powerHouse, New York (2001); Queen Elizabeth II, Royal Collection Trust, for the Monarch’s Golden Jubilee, London (2001); Damien Hirst’s Murderme Ltd Collection’s acquisition of a full edition of the 50 photograph series Bunny; ‘Polly Borland: Everything I want to be when I grow up’, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane (2012); Berlin, It’s All a Mess, IO Echo music video commission—Polly Borland with John Hillcoat, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2012); ‘We used to talk about love’, Balnaves Contemporary: Photomedia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2013); Polymorphous, directed by Alex Chomicz, ABC Television, Australia (2013); and ‘YOU’, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York and Murray White Room Gallery, Melbourne (2013-14). Most recent major solo presentations have included ‘MONSTER’, Murray White Room, Melbourne (2017); ‘ The Babies’, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles. ‘Polymorph’, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney | Singapore (2018); ‘Polly Borland: Polyverse’, National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne (2018); and Nudie, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles. Borland’s other monographic publications include The Babies (2000), Bunny (2008), Smudge (2010), YOU (2013) and Morph (2018).

The artist’s work has been acquired by the collections of the National Portrait Galleries, London and Canberra; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York; National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Melbourne; Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Hobart; Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), Adelaide; and Borland has been recognised internationally with numerous awards and prizes including the prestigious John Kobal Photographic Portrait Award.

Sullivan+Strumpf acknowledge the Indigenous People of this land, the traditional custodians on whose Country we work, live and learn. We pay respect to Elders, past and present, and recognise their continued connection to culture, land, waters and community.

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