ZOË VENESS
Jewellery artist and Senior Lecturer, School of Art & Design, University of New South Wales, Gadigal-Bidjigal/Sydney
EDUCATION
2015 Doctor of Philosophy, UNSW Art & Design
2005 Master of Design (Research), UNSW Art & Design
1998 Bachelor of Design, UNSW Art & Design
1991 Diploma of Dance, Australian Ballet School, Naarm/Melbourne
SOLO & JOINT EXHIBITIONS
2024 “Still Point” Funaki Gallery
2022 “The Stream of Time” Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf
2019 “Affinity” with Sylvie Veness, STACKS Projects, Gadigal/Sydney
2017 “New Terrain in an Old World” Craft + Design Canberra
2014 “To make an end is to make a beginning” AD Space, UNSW Art & Design
2009 “Infinite Fold” JamFactory, Tarndanya/Adelaide
2007 “Mathematical Beauty” Australian Design Centre
2005 “1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8…” Two Cubed, Sherman Galleries
2005 “Alchemical Analogies II” Shoalhaven Regional Gallery
2004 “Alchemical Analogies” Ivan Dougherty Gallery
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 “State of Flux” Alta Forma, Naarm/Melbourne
2025 “Trove: Contemporary Jewellery” Craft Victoria
2025 “Matters of Time: Contemporary Metal Practices” UNSW Galleries
2025 “Poetics of Place II” ATTA Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2025 “The Familiar in the Foreign – Jewellery from the Southern Hemisphere” Gallery Handwerk, Munich, Germany
2023 “Vestige” Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
2023 “Paper Scissors Rock” Hawkesbury Regional Gallery
2020 “Made/Worn: Australian Contemporary Jewellery” Australian Design Centre, national tour 2020-2023
2020 “Wayfaring” Craft + Design Canberra
2017 “Remanence” Ten Days on the Island, Domain House, nipaluna/Hobart
2015 “Iterations” Stanley Street Gallery, Gadigal/Sydney
2010 “Excessory, Contemporary Australian Jewellery” Manly Art Gallery & Museum, national tour 2011
AWARDS & PRIZES
2025 Finalist, MAKE Award: Biennial Prize for Innovation in Australian Craft and Design
2023 Winner, Contemporary Wearables Biennial Jewellery Award Exhibition
2022, 2016 Finalist, National Contemporary Jewellery Award
2022 Finalist, Lake Art Prize
2015 Finalist, ITAMI International Jewellery Exhibition, Japan
2006, 2002 Finalist, City of Hobart Art Prize
2004 Winner, Non-Precious Jewellery Category, National Contemporary Jewellery Award
2002 Finalist, Talente München – Masters of the Future
2007, 2001 Finalist, Contemporary Wearables Biennial Jewellery Award Exhibition
GRANTS
2025 Linkage Project Grant, Australian Research Council
2023 UNSW Art & Design Research Grant
2019 Exhibition Development Fund, Contemporary Arts Tasmania
2017 Arts Project Grant, Australia Council
2012 UNSW Postgraduate Research Student Support Travel Grant
2011 Australian Postgraduate Award
2011 UNSW Art & Design Top Up Scholarship
2006 Visual Arts Development Grant, Australia Council
2005 Craft-in-Site Grant, Australian Design Centre
2003 Postgraduate Research Grant, UNSW Art & Design
2002 Visual Arts Development Grant, Australia Council
ARTIST RESIDENCIES
2010 Bundanon, Dharawal-Dhurga/West Cambewarra, NSW
2006 Edinburgh College of Art, Jewellery Department, Edinburgh, Scotland
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS & PUBLICATIONS
Veness. Z. 2025 ‘Sky Series: Painting the heavens with glass’. Garland Magazine. 1 September. https://garlandmag.com/article/sky-series/
Veness, Z. 2023 ‘Wayfaring through Jewellery Practice’. All Hands on Deck, Cross-Disciplinary Symposium, University of Technology, Gadigal/Sydney, 19-21 July 2023. https://allhandsondeck2023.com/symposium-schedule-19-21-july-2023/ Presentation recording
Veness, Z. 2022 ‘Surfaces of Time: Patination and Colouring in Vessel Making’, Histories of Metallurgy and Metal Material Culture, Centre for Art History and Art Theory, Australian National University, Ngunnawal-Ngambri/Canberra, Friday 18 November.
Veness, Z. 2022. ‘Resilience Narratives: Shifting Imperatives of Material-Making during Times of Crisis’, New Networks, ACUADS/DDCA Conference Proceedings. RMIT University. https://acuads.com.au/conference/article/resilience-narratives-shifting-imperatives-of-material-making-during-times-of-crisis/
Samsarasekara, I., Moline, K., Veness, Z. 2022. ‘Reimagining the Cosmopolitanism of Sri Lanka through Cultural Artefacts’, New Networks, ACUADS/DDCA Conference Proceedings. RMIT University. https://acuads.com.au/conference/article/reimagining-the-cosmopolitanism-of-sri-lanka-through-cultural-artefacts/
Veness, Z. 2021. ‘Folding Space-Time: Wayfaring through Object Making’. Jewellery Values – Materiality, Making & Movement (Sydney) 9 October. Value Chains Reset: The JMGA Conference Redistributed. ANU, Garland Magazine & Australian Design Centre.
Veness, Z. 2021. ‘Post-Covid reflections on material making for design students at Art & Design University of New South Wales’. NiTRO – Non-traditional Research Outcomes. 30 July. https://nitro.edu.au/articles/2021/7/30/post-covid-reflections-on-material-making-for-design-students-at-art-amp-design-university-of-new-south-wales
Veness, Z. 2020. ‘New Terrain in an Old World’. Frangipani: Garland Compendium Three. Melbourne: Garland Magazine. ISBN: 978-0-9875154-6-9.
Veness, Z. 2019. ‘Wayfaring’. Garland Magazine. 2 September. https://garlandmag.com/loop/zoe-veness/
Veness, Z. 2018. ‘New Terrain in an Old World’. Garland Magazine. 1 June. https://garlandmag.com/article/new-terrain-in-an-old-world/
Hogan, J., Veness, Z., Jones, S., and Hughes, P. 2018. ‘Reparation: Three Points of Contact.’ ACHRC: Humanities in the Regions/Collaborating with Collecting and Cultural Institutions Symposium. Launceston, Tasmania: University of Tasmania. 10-11 May.
Veness, Z. 2017. ‘New Terrain in an Old World’. Exh. Cat. Hobart: Zoe Veness. ISBN: 978-0-6481842-0-1.
Keating, M., Norrie, H. Kratz, S., Veness, Z. and Juliff, T. 2017. ‘Praxis Now: Frayling’s ‘Research in Art and Design’ 24 years on.’ ACUADS/DDCA Conference Proceedings. Canberra: ANU School of Art and Design. 28-29 September. https://acuads.com.au/conference/article/praxis-now-fraylings-research-in-art-and-design-24-years-on/
Fountain, W., Veness, Z., Kratz, S., Wise, K., Jones, S. 2017. ‘Preparing to Co-design new design education for Tasmania, ‘design island.’ REDO Cumulus Conference, Design School Kolding, Denmark, 30 May-2 June.
Veness, Z. and Tieu, B. 2016. ‘Poetic Dimensions: Jewellery Conversations about Design Process.’ ICDHS | The International Conference on Design History and Design Studies: Making Trans/national Contemporary Design History. Taipei. 26 - 28 October. https://www.proceedings.blucher.com.br/article-details/poetic-dimensions-jewellery-conversations-about-design-process-24196
Veness, Z. 2015. ‘To make an end is to make a beginning’. Edgesbordersgaps. 16th Jewellery and Metalsmiths Group of Australia Conference. Sydney: Sydney College of the Arts. 10-12 July.
Veness, Z. 2012. ‘Holding time: An analysis of jewellery making’. Making: An International Conference on Materiality and Knowledge. Notodden, Norway: Telemark University College. 24-27 September.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Musée des Arts Décoratifs
National Gallery of Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia, Rhianon Vernon-Roberts Memorial Collection & Decorative Arts Collection
Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery - Toowoomba City Collection
Griffith Regional Art Gallery, National Contemporary Jewellery Award Collection
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024 Kelly Gellatly, ‘On the Verge of Movement’. Art Jewelry Forum, 26 August. https://artjewelryforum.org/reviews/zoe-veness-on-the-verge-of-movement_exhib_australia_8-26-2024/
2021 Tracey Clement, ‘Artists use the language of jewellery to explore ideas’. Art Guide Online, 15 July. https://artguide.com.au/artists-use-the-language-of-jewellery-to-explore-ideas/
2021 Chloé Wolifson, ‘The Language of Jewellery’. Design Anthology Magazine – Australian Edition pp.71-74, 31 May.
2020 Kay Harrison, ‘Scribbly gums and sublime peaks: jewellery that speaks to place and finding your own path’ by Kay Harrison, UNSW Newsroom, 1 Oct. https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/art-architecture-design/scribbly-gums-and-sublime-peaks-jewellery-speaks-place-and-finding-your
2017 Maria Kunda, ‘It presides over everything in this place’, New Terrain in an Old World. Exh. Cat. Hobart: Zoe Veness. ISBN: 978-0-6481842-0-1.
2017 Yiorgos Zafiriou, ‘Newness in an Old World’, New Terrain in an Old World. Exh. Cat. Hobart: Zoe Veness. ISBN: 978-0-6481842-0-1.
2015 Julie Ewington, ‘Wearing it lightly’, Autonomous Jewellery. Exh. Cat. Sydney: Zoe Veness.
2010 Interview. Excessory, Contemporary Australian Jewellery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOk1yh--yZc (uploaded August 12, 2010).
2010 Excessory – Contemporary Australian Jewellery. Exh. Cat. Sydney: Museum & Galleries NSW.
2009 Tracey Clement, ‘More than metal & gems’. Driven Magazine no. 3, pp. 18-23.
2009 Rani Sheen, ‘Code Poet’, Silverlimbo online magazine. Issue 2, pp. 79-82. https://issuu.com/silverlimbo/docs/silverlimbo2/79
2007 Catch On 2. Exh. Cat. Adelaide: Zu Design.
2007 Contemporary Wearables ’07. Exh. Cat. Toowoomba: Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery.
2007 Curio: A Contemporary Jewellery Exhibition. Exh. Cat. Brisbane: Redland Art Gallery.
2007 Margaret Farmer, ‘The Beautiful Alchemist’, COFA Magazine no.19, p.38.
2007 Integration: The Nature of Objects. Exh. Cat. Sydney: Ivan Dougherty Gallery.
2006 City of Hobart Art Prize Jewellery/Printmaking. Exh. Cat. Tasmania: Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery.
2006 Marthe LeVan (ed.) The Art of Paper Jewelry, Lark Books: NY.
2004 Margot Osborne, ‘Zoe Veness: Beauty and Alchemy’. COFA Magazine no. 10, p.12.
2003 Jack Cunningham, ‘Metamorphosis – Emerging Sydney’, Crafts Arts International no. 59, p. 107.
2002 Talente. Exh. Cat. Munich: Bayerischer Handwerkstag e. V., p. 109.
2002 Jo Litson, ‘Craft Masters in demand for Munich’, The Australian, 15 March, p.19.