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
Overview
Small size:
archival pigment print
92 × 78.5 cm (Small) - AUD$ 11,000
Edition of 6 plus 3 artist's proofs
Large size:
archival pigment print
200 × 162.5 cm - AUD$ 18,500
Edition of 6 plus 3 artist's proofs
archival pigment print
200.5 × 162.5 cm
Small size:
archival pigment print
92 × 78.5 cm - AUD$ 11,000
Edition of 6 plus 3 artist's proofs
Large size:
archival pigment print
200 × 162.5 cm - AUD$ 18,500
Edition of 6 plus 3 artist's proofs
Type C photograph
105.5 × 86.5 cm
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.
archival pigment print, AP3
66 × 91 cm
cibachrome photograph
66 × 91 cm
lenticular print
digital print on rice paper
mounted on Lexan and wood
50.5 × 76 × 3.5 cm
cast aluminium with automotive paint, matte finish
61 × 42.5 × 27 cm
edition of 5 plus 2 artist's proofs
tapestry
95 × 77 cm
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About
Polly Borland
Biography
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.
Credit Line: © Polly Borland; Photo by Timothy Johnson; Courtesy of the artist and Nino Mier Gallery
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