Recent + Forthcoming Events
03.05.25 Performance project w/ Conduction curator Debris Facility + Sleepless Footscray Festival

12.04.25 ‘We Called it New Music’ panel discussion w/ David Chesworth, Warren Burt, Judy Annear, Clinton Green, Helen Grogan in an artistic program w/ Essendon Airport, Mia Alexander, Ernie Althoff, Judy Annear, Jessica Aszodi, Arsam Samadi Bahrami, Ros Bandt, Bodies of Infinite Divine and Eternal Spirit, Warren Burt, Who Cares?, David Chesworth, Carolyn Connors, →↑→, Les Gilbert, Clinton Green, Helen Grogan, Kassie Junkeer, Joy Lee, Levi Liauw, Rainer Linz, Sachin de Silva Silzedrek, Ron Nagorcka, James Rushford, Bridget Small, Paul Fletcher, Jayne Stevenson.

04.04.25 ‘Inside Studio / Actual Ghosts’ screening, Alexander Powers’ Miscelania performance program w/ Mara Galagher, Alexander Powers, Andrea Illes, Ari Angkasa, Jo Lloyd and Shelley Lasica, Gateway Experience, Stacey Collee, Zoe Bastin, Hazardous Lace, Jasper Salomonsz, Chung Nguyen, lyds, Callan BH, Helen Grogan.

About
Helen Grogan (born 1979, Australia) is an artist working at the intersection of performance, exhibition, and documentation practice for over two decades. She foregrounds the critical application of process, integrating choreographic thinking within her professional roles as an artist, curator, and advisor for time-based practice in GLAM settings. In 2024, Grogan’s art practice was awarded a Samstag International Visual Art scholarship, recognising her focus on contexts of documentation.

Grogan’s artistic practice has been presented by institutions in Oceania and Europe, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Knulp, and SCA Gallery (Eora/Sydney); Ian Potter Museum of Art, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Gertrude Contemporary, Center for Contemporary Photography, Sutton Gallery, and Liquid Architecture (Naarm/Melbourne); Samstag Museum of Art (Tarntanya/Adelaide); Rijksakademie (Amsterdam); Netherlands Institute of Architecture (Amsterdam); HAU Hebbel am Ufer and Kontex Festival (Berlin); Galerie Stadtpark (Krems); and Tbilisi Triennial (Rustavi). Her recent research was presented at Istanbul University for the International Association of Audiovisual Archives (IASA).

Since 2023, Grogan has investigated relational and responsive strategies for art archives, engaging directly with significant international precedents, including de Appel Archive (Amsterdam) and The Kitchen Archive (New York City).  This ongoing research supports archive systems that integrate critical curatorial methods and artist-driven ontologies. It explores the documentation ethics of these artist-centred organisations, as living cultures within their archives as workplaces—where politics are situated in context and transmitted through processes and relations. Together with The Kitchen Archivist, Alex Waterman, she devised and developed the initiative: The Kitchen Archive Fellowship.

Her initial training in performance archives took place at The Kitchen in New York City, 2001-2002, where she worked on description, digitisation, and collection engagement. At that time she was assistant to Kristina Yang, The Kitchen’s New Media Arts curator.

Grogan’s experience in performance archives, exhibition archives, and time-based art documentation includes work with Naarm/Melbourne-based organisations such as Liquid Architecture, Performance Review, Gertrude Contemporary, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, West Space, BalletLab and Dance Massive. She has co-led collaborative projects with curators Hannah Mathews, Jared Davis, and Joanna Kitto, as well as choreographers Shelley Lasica and Phillip Adams. 

Grogan holds qualifications in philosophy, choreography, dance, and visual art as an alumna of the University of Melbourne, Amsterdam University of the Arts, City University of New York, and Deakin University. In 2019 her practice-led research was awarded the Jennifer Bowskill Photography Award from the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. She was the 2017 recipient of RMIT’s International Artist in Residency, Austria, and from 2015-2017 she was a Gertrude Contemporary studio artist.  During her time at School for New Dance Development, Amsterdam, she was supported by the Hanny Velkmap Grant.

In 2022, Grogan founded OPEN PRACTICE STUDIO, a specialised advisory and research service for time-based art practices and performance. This encompasses documentation and archiving strategies, drawing on her experience in the conceptual, technical, and ethical considerations of registering ephemeral practices. She currently advises on projects related to performance, dance, sonic arts, installation, social practice, and curation. Helen is a member of the DEI Committee of the International Association for Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) and led access initiatives for the 2024 IASA Conference.

Contact
helen@openpracticestudio.org