Samantha DENNIS 

Samantha Dennis is a jewellery and object-based artist working in Launceston, Tasmania. Her studio-based practice combines the traditional jewellery craft of goldsmithing with ceramics and glass.  Fascinated by the ways society has sought to explain and order the phenomena of life, her work navigates themes biology and museums. Sam has described her childhood ambitions as torn between a career in natural sciences or the visual arts; her practice now bridges these two passions. Her current work examines human relations to insects, juxtaposing tropes of preciousness and desire against typical reactions of repulsion and fear. This approach considers how jewellery can act as a filter to mediate the relationship between humans and animals, and questions how implication of function, value, and intimacy may be used to alter the way we experience insects and environments.

Sam completed the BCA with first class Honours in 2014 and recently began a PhD through Utas. She is a recipient of the Australia Council ‘ArtStart’ grant and has received project funding, grants and residencies through the Regional Arts Fund and Arts Tasmania. She was nominated Treasurer for Sawtooth ARI 2014-18, and invited to join the Arts Tasmania Cultural and Creative Industries Expert Register for peer advisory panels in 2017. She is the winner of the 2016 Artentwine Biennale Small Sculpture Prize, the 2019 Design Tasmania Jewellery Award and the 2019 FIND Gallery Jewellery Bursary. Her production work is currently available through Design Tasmania, MONA, Craft Victoria and Pieces of Eight.