Biography

Laresa Kosloff makes performative videos, short films, audio works and site-responsive artworks. Her practice examines various representational strategies, each one linked by an interest in the body and its agency within the everyday. Some of her projects are structured around language, whilst others use slapstick physicality to communicate ideas. Recurrent themes across Laresa’s practice include humour and tension between received cultural values, individual agency and free will.

Laresa Kosloff (b. 1974) lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne. Kosloff received a BFA (Honours) from RMIT University in 1995 and a PhD (Fine Art) from RMIT University in 2011, where she is currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Art.

Kosloff’s recent short films are assembled and edited entirely from stock footage sourced from the internet. The artist uses narrative overlay and dubbing to construct contemporary fables about corporate duplicity, neoliberalism and the climate crisis. Kosloff describes this process as akin to ventriloquism, whereby commercial clips are used to parody the market cultures for which they were initially designed. Humour features throughout these films, which play upon the absurdity of corporate greed and the systemic failures of late-stage capitalism.

From a practice that spans over 25 years, Kosloff has been the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships and residencies both within Australia and internationally. She was awarded the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art in 2023; the Incinerator Art for Social Change Award in 2021; and the Guirguis New Art Prize in 2019. Kosloff has undertaken prestigious residencies, including the Monash University Prato Centre Residency in Italy (2015), Australia Council Studio in New York (2002), and Gertrude Contemporary Studio Residency in Naarm/Melbourne (2002-2004). She has produced site-responsive audio works that have been commissioned for the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture (2017), ACCA (2022) and the Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Meanjin/Brisbane (2024).

Kosloff has presented solo exhibitions at significant institutions including the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Meanjin/Brisbane (2023); Buxton Museum, Naarm/Melbourne (2021); Monash University Museum of Art, Naarm/Melbourne (2013); Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Naarm/Melbourne (2011), and Artspace, Gadigal/Sydney (2009), among others. Her work has been included in important biennial exhibitions including the 11^th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery, 2024 (forthcoming); Melbourne Now at the National Gallery of Victoria, Naarm/Melbourne, 2023; Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art, UK, 2013; 4^th Auckland Triennial at the Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tāmaki in 2010, and the 13^th Biennial of Sydney at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2002. 

Kosloff’s work can be found in notable public and private collections throughout Australia and internationally, including the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Naarm/Melbourne; Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tāmaki; University of Queensland, Meanjin/Brisbane; Monash University, Naarm/Melbourne; City of Melbourne, Naarm/Melbourne; University of Melbourne, Naarm/Melbourne and ACMI, among others.