Brendan Van Hek is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans from small text-based neons to large-scale site-specific installations. Continually exploring new materials, he mines the possibilities inherent in a broad range of mediums from found objects, neon, glass and mirror to timber and metal. In his work, material qualities are often inverted or denied. His recent focus on pattern continues Van Hek’s ongoing preoccupation with ideas of cultural and social erasure and investigates the means with which control and order can be tested or upset.
Brendan graduated with Honours from Curtin University, Western Australia in 2001 and currently lives and works in Gadigal. He has exhibited widely nationally, including: The National 2021: New Australian Art, Carriageworks, 2021; Superposition of three types, Artspace, 2017; NEW11, ACCA, 2011; TWMA Contemporary 2010, Tarrawarra Museum of Art, 2010; and A Certain Slant of Light, PICA, 2009. He has exhibited internationally in Amour Fou, New Westminster New Media Gallery, Vancouver, Canada; Shifting Geometries, The Australian Embassy, Washington DC and Becoming: Worlds In Flux, C24 Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA. In 2012 he undertook a residency at ISCP, New York, and was the recipient of a Mid-Career Fellowship from the Department of Culture and the Arts WA, and has been the recipient of numerous grants from the Creative Australia.