For over 25 years Patricia Piccinini has interrogated the complex relationship between our natural and artificial worlds, beginning each creative project with the posing of a speculative question, a wondrous ‘What if…?’ Known internationally for her astonishing hyperrealism, Piccinini’s practice comprises drawing, photography, video, mixed-media painted compositions, large-scale installation, and includes the now iconic hot-air balloon sculpture Skywhale. Exploring the idea of the malleability of bodies through the intervention of science, Piccinini asks: ‘What is our relationship to the nature that we change?’.¹

Piccinini was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1965 and arrived in Kamberri/Canberra, Australia in 1972. After graduating with a degree in economic history from the Australian National University in 1988 she pursued painting at the Victorian College of the Arts, graduating in 1991. With a group of fellow artists, including her husband Peter Hennessy, Piccinini established the Basement Project Gallery in Naarm/Melbourne in 1994. She and Hennessy have worked as a collaborative team ever since, operating out of Drome, their joint studio in Collingwood. Drome comprises a team of studio assistants, artisans, technologists and fabricators who bring a wealth of specialist knowledge to the expanding scale and complexity of Piccinini’s practice.

Piccinini began exploring the implications of bio-technology and genome sequencing in The mutant genome Project 1994–95, a series of digital photographs and installations. Her probing of the boundaries of nature and artifice, shared DNA, mutations and hybridity were further demonstrated in We are family, which was shown in the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2003. Skywhale, an enormous hot-air balloon sculpture of an imagined flying mammal, was commissioned in 2013 and has since flown throughout the world. Recently, Skywhale’s companion piece, Skywhalepapa—Piccinini’s most ambitious project to date—was commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia with the support of The Balnaves Foundation. After launching in Kamberri/Canberra in 2021, the Skywhale family has taken to the skies of Australia, touring nationally as part of the National Gallery of Australia’s commitment to bringing art to all Australians.

1. Patricia Piccinini, interview with Nathan Scolaro, ‘Conversations: Patricia Piccinini makes tender art’, Dumbo Feather, 27 September 2018, https://www.dumbofeather.com/conversations/patricia-piccinini-interview/