Nat Penney (b.1991) is an artist based in Tarntanya (Adelaide). Combining processes from timber furniture making and metal fabrication with found and formed objects, she considers the sensory desires in things, looking for subconscious object impulses. She’s driven by an obsession and confusion over psychological and emotional states and their reciprocal exchange with our relationships, environments, and the objects we engage with.

Recent works are drawing from experiences of loneliness and how they are shaped not only by absence, but by conditional presence. Looking into the atmosphere of familial domesticity she searches for pleasing points of interconnectedness between the familiar and the eerie; for absurdist moments that engage themselves through futile motion and maybe make you smirk.

Her practice often incorporates materials weighted heavily in nostalgia, such as tiles from her renovated childhood bathroom or her parents’ wooden tennis racquets, embedding personal histories into sculptural objects. These materials act as communicators and carriers of memory, yet memory and nostalgia themselves are malleable, untrustworthy, and sometimes irresponsible, reshaping perception and altering what we take to be truth.

CV
email: nat.pen@live.com.au

Education

2017

Bachelor of Creative Arts, Honours (First Class), Flinders University, Tarntanya (Adelaide), Australia

2016

Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design, Adelaide College of the Arts, Tarntanya (Adelaide), Australia

Solo exhibitions

2024

a winter beach is a good place for seeing clearly, Newmarch Gallery, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2024

making beds inside post anchors, POP (Post Office Projects), Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2019

simple actions/sensory satisfactions in the unrest, FELTspace ARI, Tarntanya (Adelaide), Australia

2019

watch this space, Newmarch Gallery, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2017

SALA at FELTspace, FELTspace ARI, Tarntanya (Adelaide), Australia

Two person exhibitions

2022

Limits and Leavings, with Eleanor Amor, Bus Projects, land of the Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung language groups (Collingwood), Australia

Selected group exhibitions

2026

10+10+DRG 10 Year Anniversary, curated by Robert Rearson David Roche Gallery, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2025

personal colleague; no one is a kitchen island for ‘every*where’: Adelaide Design Week, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2025

‘motion’ for ‘every*where’: Adelaide Design Week, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2025

The Other Room, Seventh Gallery, Richmond, VIC, Australia

2025

Reflections of Home- Vol. 2: Material & Culture, curated by Bolaji Teniola Rotterdam Design Biennale, Rotterdam, Netherlands

2024

Dance Machine, curated by Tom Golin, Household Presents, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2024

HEAVY // lite, curated by Dre Fuzz, Praxis ARTSPACE, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2024

nearly an exhibition, curated by Asha Southcombe, Nearly Bar, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2024

Soft Fascinations, curated by Brianna Speight, fab workshop, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2020

on being an artist, curated by eDuard Helmbold, Praxis ARTSPACE, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2019

poles of art, curated by Ed James, Prospect Gallery, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2019

FELT Auction, FELTspace ARI, Tarntanya (Adelaide), Australia

2017

The Porous Edge, Light Square Gallery, Tarntanya (Adelaide), Australia

2016

Ingress: Visual Arts Graduate Exhibition, Light Square Gallery, Tarntanya (Adelaide), Australia

2016

ERROR, Glitch Experimental Art Space, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2016

NOW/ALL/MORE, Glitch Experimental Art Space, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2015

PTADL Studio Launch/Pop Up! Opening, Glitch Experimental Art Space, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

Grants/awards/professional highlights

2025

CreateSA Major Collaboration Grant

2025

Arts South Australia Project Grant

2023 to Present

Director at fab workshop, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2023

Jam Factory- Furniture Associate, Tarntanya (Adelaide), Australia

2022

Helpmann Creative Development Grant

2021

Arts South Australia Project Grant

2020

Helpmann Covid-19 Relief Fund Grant

2015 to 2018

Co-Director at Glitch Experimental Art Space, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2016

FELTspace emerging artist award

Residencies

2019

George Street Studios Residency (Helpmann Academy), Kaurna Country (Adelaide) Australia

2018

Sanskriti Kendra Artist Residency (Helpmann Academy), New Delhi, India

Publications and press

Nat Penney finds clarity in a winter beach, 2024, Art Guide (May Edition)

Employment

2020 to present

Freelance Metal Fabricator, Kaurna Country (Adelaide), Australia

2020 to present

Timber Furniture Maker, Agostino & Brown, Kaurna Country (Adelaide) Australia

2024 to present

Casual Install Technician, Samstag Gallery, Tarntanya (Adelaide), Australia

2022-23

Casual Install Technician, ACE, Tarntanya (Adelaide), Australia

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the dull ache of needing to remain acceptable