Gillian Kayrooz

Gillian Kayrooz and her art practice was nurtured on unceded Dharug land, in Guildford, Western Sydney. She currently lives and works; between Gadigal and Dharug land in Sydney and Western Sydney. Kayrooz graduated with First Class Honours from the Sydney College of the Arts in 2018. In the same year, she was awarded the Create NSW Young Creative Leaders Fellowship which led her to exhibit internationally in the Asia-Pacific region and complete residencies at the Chengdu Academy of Fine Arts in China, as well as the Sapporo Tenjinyama Artist Studio and the Tokyo ARTnSHELTER Gallery Precinct in Japan.

Her work has been shown extensively in solo and group exhibitions across Australia, including spaces such as Artspace, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Fairfield City Museum and Gallery, Firstdraft, The Granville Arts Centre, Penrith Regional Gallery, Urban Theatre Projects, The Powerhouse Museum, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, and most recently in 2023, she presented her first institutional solo exhibition, Five Ways To Say I'm Home, at the Murray Art Museum in Albury.

Kayrooz held a studio artist tenancy at the Parramatta Artist Studios from 2020-2021 and was appointed Co-Director, and Co-Chair of Firstdraft from 2021-2023. She is currently participating in Counterflows, a program commissioned by Artshouse (Melbourne) and UTP (Sydney), that enabled her to undertake research and participate in the ‘March Meeting’ program as part of the 2023 Sharjah Biennale in the UAE. She is also the Vitocco Curator at the Powerhouse Museum, focusing on engaging the communities and histories of South-West Sydney for the Parramatta Powerhouse.