Kerry lennon

bio

Kerry Lennon was born in Hamilton, New Zealand in 1976 and relocated to Australia in 1999. Commencing a Master of Contemporary Art this year, at Melbourne University, she holds a Bachelor of Consumer and Applied Science (Design Studies) and a Certificate IV in Painting and Drawing, with a 20+ year career in creative advertising behind her. Oil painting is a relatively new passion and a pivot from her earlier experiments in illustration and installation art. With just a handful of paintings completed, she entered the 2025 Flanagan Art Award and was named a shortlisted finalist — and now, there’s no turning back.

In 2025, her practice explores the intersection of identity, nostalgia, and everyday objects, elevating overlooked domestic items as markers of time and place.

She examines the quiet yet intimate relationship between individuals and the often-overlooked objects that shape daily life. By recontextualising mundane items, she invites viewers to reconsider their significance and the evolving, often repetitive roles they play daily life.

Her solo show Petit Salon is on until 17 March 2026, see it virtually HERE, where she isolates moments in the quotidian, to elevate the ordinary as something worth noticing.

Kerry’s background in creative advertising brings a sharp awareness of storytelling, visual language, and the influence of popular culture to her evolving contemporary art practice.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

  • 2025 Flanagan Art Award- Finalist

  • 2004 News Ltd Cannes Young Creative Competition – Finalist

  • 2003 AWARD School Australian Writers & Art Directors Association

  • 2002 & 2001 Pulp Magazine Fashion Graphic Competition – Finalist in 3 categories (New Zealand)

  • 1999 Radical art award Weta Workshop

GRANTS 

  • 2021 Winner of the City of Melbourne Creative Spaces Grant 

Facilitated, curated, and exhibited in Trash Magic, The Alchemy of the Found Object, a group show of 12 artists. The exhibit was held in the iconic stand-alone window boxes in a public subway beneath Flinders Street Station, inviting the public to engage with art in an unexpected urban space.

EDUCATION

  • Commencing 2026:Master of Contemporary Art Melboune University

  • 2023 Cert IV Painting, Drawing and Art History
    Melbourne Polytechnic

  • 1995–1998 Bachelor of Consumer and Applied Science
    – Design Studies
    University of Otago, New Zealand