Ana Pollak

Born Australia

Lives & Works Hawkesbury River (Kuring-gai)

Ana Pollak lives and works on Dangar Island on the Hawkesbury River, NSW. She began her art studies at the Byam Shaw School of painting and drawing in London and then studied at the Alexander Mackie School of Art.

Since 1988 she has been involved in community actions and art projects to protect the Hawkesbury River environment. After a series of extended drawing trips from 1993 - 2002, with her partner, painter David Collins, Pollak decided to focus her practice on sculpture and drawing. She was awarded the Dobell Prize for Drawing in 2007.

From 2009-2011, Pollak made the hand-drawn film ‘Flux’ which brought together her fascination with Chinese calligraphy and the movement of water. After those years of drawing ‘Flux’ inside her dark studio, Pollak sought the bright outdoors. Since then she has been painting the textures and layers of the foliage of the Hawkesbury sandstone country in clay slips and oxides on plywood.

In 2017 Pollak was granted the Hong Kong Artists Residency with the Nock Art Foundation. Here she was able to meet traditional and contemporary Chinese calligraphers who generously shared their philosophies and aesthetic ideas. This experience led Pollak to explore working with ink and rice paper. In 2019 Pollak made the hand drawn animated portrait film ‘r’. The films use of gestural marks in many layers intensifies the portrait's emotional expression. 

Her work is held in the Art Gallery of New South Wales collection and numerous private collections nationally.