Research Catalogue

Brigita Ozolins is an artist and an academic at the University of Tasmania with a background in librarianship and arts administration. Her art examines the links between language, history, bureaucracy and identity and stems from her passion for books, words and libraries. She uses a wide range of materials to convey her ideas, including books, handwriting, digital images, video and furniture. Her work usually takes the form of installation, is often text-based and site-specific, sometimes incorporates performance and increasingly involves working with other experts such as architects, builders, engineers, and video and sound artists. Her best known works include Kryptos (2011), a large scale permanent installation that explores the links between codes and writing commissioned by the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) Tasmania; and The Reading Room (2011) an interactive installation that incorporated over 30,000 books, commissioned by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in 2011.

Since 1995, Ozolins has exhibited regularly in solo and group exhibitions, including completing commissions for MONA, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the State Library of Tasmania and the National Library of Latvia (via the Soros Foundation). She has received numerous artist grants, including the 2008 inaugural Qantas Contemporary Art Award, Australia Council residencies in New York and London, the et+t residency in Riga, the Cite Internationale des Arts residency in Paris, and Arts Tasmania residencies at Gorge Cottage in Launceston, and Port Arthur, Tasmania.  Ozolins is represented by Bett Gallery, North Hobart.