Kate Beynon facts for kids
Kate Beynon is an Australian artist who creates modern art. She lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Contents
Early Life and Learning
Kate Beynon was born in Hong Kong. Her mother was Chinese-Malaysian, and her father was Welsh. In 1974, when Kate was four, her family moved from Hong Kong to Melbourne, Australia. She studied at the University of Melbourne in 1989. Later, she graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1993.
Her Art and Career
Kate Beynon's art explores ideas about living with different cultures. She also looks at feminism, which is about equal rights for women. Her work often shows how different cultures mix together in today's world.
She is famous for her paintings of a Chinese hero named Li Ji. Kate places Li Ji in modern settings. Through Li Ji, Kate shows what it's like to have a mixed Australian background. She explores how people find their place when they have many different parts to their identity.
Kate has shown her art in many group exhibitions around the world. She has also had more than 25 solo shows, where only her art is displayed. She took part in big art shows about feminism. These included "Global Feminisms" in 2007 and "The F–Word, Contemporary Feminist Art in Australia" in 2014.
In 1995, Kate traveled to Beijing, China, to learn Mandarin. There, she found the story of Li Ji in a language textbook. This story became a big part of her art.
Kate has won several awards and grants. In 2004, she received a grant for an art residency in Harlem, New York. In 2012, she got another grant to show her art in India. Kate has also been a finalist eight times for the Archibald Prize. This is a very important art award in Australia. She was a finalist in 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2020.
Her art is shown at Sutton Gallery in Melbourne and Milani Gallery in Brisbane. Kate has been showing her work at Sutton Gallery since 1996. Her art is also part of many public art collections worldwide.
What Her Art Is About
Kate Beynon moved to Australia when she was four. This meant she grew up experiencing two different cultures. Her art often focuses on her mixed background. She has Welsh, English, Chinese, Malaysian, and Norwegian family roots.
Her art stories are inspired by old Chinese myths. She takes these ancient tales and puts them into the modern world. When she first started her career, she tried out Chinese calligraphy. This is a beautiful way of writing Chinese characters. She used it to think about ideas of race and culture in her own family.
Kate also uses styles from Eastern (like manga) and Western comic books. She also includes modern graffiti in her art. Her interest in writing as an art form comes from her grandfather. He was a calligrapher and the last person in her family who could read and write Chinese. Her first artwork, "the foolish old man moves the mountain," was based on a story from her grandfather’s book.
The Story of Li Ji
Since 1996, much of Kate Beynon's art has been about a made-up character named Li Ji. This character is a hero from Chinese mythology. Kate changed Li Ji to explore ideas about mixed cultures and race.
The original myth is an old Chinese story. It was written by Gan Bao. The story is about a young Chinese girl who bravely saves her village. She does this by killing a giant snake. Art expert Maura Reilly says that through Li Ji, Kate Beynon talks about important issues. These include multiculturalism and immigration in Australia today.
Kate's work also deals with modern questions about race and identity. In her video Where is Your Original Home, Li Ji travels through a modern Chinatown in Melbourne. In this video, Kate explores a question often asked of non-Anglo Australians: "Where are you from?" She shows how a simple question can feel unfriendly. This happens when it suggests someone doesn't truly belong.
Kate is also inspired by her own experiences in other cultures. When she lived in Harlem, New York, she used the styles she saw there in her pictures of Li Ji. For example, she added African hair braiding to Li Ji's look. This change in Li Ji shows how her identity can be flexible and mixed. Through Li Ji, Kate explores ideas about cultural identity and how people see race.
Awards and Recognition
- 2016: Won the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize for her painting, Graveyard scene/the beauty and sadness of bones.
Exhibitions
Solo Shows
- 2015 – Dance of the Spirits, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
- 2015 – An-Li: A Chinese Ghost Tale, TarraWarra Museum of Art
- 2012 – Frida & Friends, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
- 2008 – Auspicious Charms for Transcultural Living, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- 2004 – Harlem to Noco: The Hybrid Life of Li Ji, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
- 2001 – Li Ji: Warrior Girl, Gallery 4A, Asia-Australia Arts Centre, Sydney
Group Shows
- 2007 – Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA
- 2006 – The 2006 Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- 2005 – Identity and Desire, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
- 2004 – Xin Nian: Contemporary Chinese Australian Art, The Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- 2002 – Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968 – 2002, The Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- 2001 – Our Place: Issues of Identity in Recent Australian Art, Monash University in Prato, Italy
- 1999 – Perspecta 99, Talkback: Living Here Now – Art & Politics, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- 1996 – Primavera 1996, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Art Collections
Kate Beynon's artworks are held in many important collections. These include:
- American University, Washington DC, USA
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
- Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
- The Museum of Modern Art (MMK), Frankfurt, Germany
- And many other public and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, and the USA.
