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40 Years of VCA

Director, Victorian College of the Arts

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Professor Su Baker has degrees from Curtin University and Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney and holds a Doctorate of Creative Arts, from Curtin University of Technology.

Employment History

In March 2000 Su moved from Sydney, where she worked for 20 years, including Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney and took up the position as Head of the School of Art, Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), where she is currently serviing as Director. Su has held academic positions since 1989, including senior management roles at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney and Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.

Research Interests

Su Baker's current work explores the shift from the critique of representation, prevalent in the latter part of the twentieth century, to one more akin to participation in an event.

Through specific installation strategies in the exhibition of paintings and critical writing the research presents the critical tension between humanist values and associated critical debates on modernism and the discursive field collected under the term 'posthumanisim'.

This research calls for a rethinking of current modes of art criticism in relation to contemporary painting and identified a significant shift from acts of representation to the staging of "painting events".

It is the intention of this research to promote a reinvestment in the silent, visual, libidinal economy of painting with an intellectual gravitas and an underlying seriousness, invoking the "voice" of serious pleasure.

Publications

Su Baker has exhibited nationally over the last 20 years in public and commercial galleries, including numerous solo and selected group exhibitions and national survey shows. In 2003 she received a New Work Grant, Visual Arts Grants; in 2000 she spent time at the Milan Studio, granted from the Australia Council where she developed new work exhibited at Boutwell Draper Gallery in Sydney in 2001; Winner of the 1996 Portia Geach Memorial Award. She has received University of Sydney research support grants in 1993 and 1994; an overseas Development Grant, Italian Studio, VACB, Australia Council; 1991 Project Grant, Visual Arts/Crafts Board, Australia Council; 1988 Visiting Artist, Curtin University of Technology, WA 1987; Half Standard Grant, Visual Arts/Craft Board, Australia Council, 1987; Project Grant, Visual Arts Board, Australia Council, 1986. Her work has been collected by private and public collections that include: Art Bank Collection, ACTA Shipping Collection, Alexander Library Collection (WA State Library), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Curtin University of Technology, R&I Bank Collection, Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Wagga Regional Gallery, Private Collections.