Judith Klavins

Through the field of contemporary installation, Judith Klavins speculates upon her connection to the coast; its flux and unpredictability. This is where Klavins grew up and to where she regularly returns.

In a family diary, Klavins discovered that some of her maternal ancestors also lived on the coast, on King Island, llutruwita (Tasmania), in the middle of Bass Strait in the early 1800’s. A sealer lived and raised a family with a Tasmanian First Nations woman. The archives reveal that such relationships were often coercive.

Using a practice led methodology which focusses on the use of minimal materials and ‘careful handling’, Klavins works in co-production with materials. She thinks about these troubling and complex histories, and responds to the gaps in archival narratives by offering an immersive and embodied experience for viewers to encounter, so that they too can experience the anxiety and tension she feels.

Whilst Klavins does not personally or culturally identify as a First Nations person, her work addresses her maternal ancestral history and the systemic impacts of colonization.

Judith Klavins is a contemporary installation artist. Her installations include sculpture, video, photography, textile, drawing, and printmaking. In 2022, Klavins graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Art from the Adelaide Central School of Art, and was presented the ACSA Board of Governor’s and Guildhouse Award of Excellence.

Using a practice led methodology which focusses on minimal materials and ‘careful handling’, Klavins creates artworks which poetically engage and speculate upon her relationship with coastal environments where she has lived, returns to regularly, and to which she has ancestral connections.

Klavins’ maternal ancestors include a sealer and a Tasmanian First Nation’s woman, who together raised a family on King Island, llutruwita (Tasmania) in the 1820- 40’s. By re-framing the gaps in archival collections and family narratives, Klavins responds to the troubling and complex histories often documented between sealers and Tasmanian First Nation’s women.

Klavins held her first large solo exhibition Stories in Ink: John Scot(t)’s Diary (1836-1847) at the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Art, Hobart, Tasmania (2016-17) where her work responded to her ancestor’s transcribed personal diary located in the Tasmanian Archives, Hobart. Following this exhibition, the University of Tasmania purchased five works for their Fine Art Collection and these works were exhibited in Here and Elsewhere: New Acquisitions from the UTAS Fine Art Collection, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart (2019).

Klavins has won awards and exhibited in numerous group exhibitions across South Australia and Tasmania. In 2023, Klavins is an upcoming Finalist in the RSASA Abstract Art Prize: Essence of Place. In 2014, Klavins was a Finalist in the Glover Prize, Evandale, Tasmania, the Port Lincoln Art Prize and the Adelaide Parklands Art Prize.