Eva Nolan is a Sydney-based artist who explores drawing as an empirical tool for observing, documenting, and categorising the natural world. A current PhD candidate at UNSW Art, Design & Architecture, her research examines natural history drawing practices and the role of taxonomies in our understanding of interspecies relationality. Nolan critiques scientific drawing practices that position species as specimens – inert objects available for extraction and exploitation. She explores contemporary notions of symbiosis and ecological entanglement and challenges ideas of the biological individual. Her practice is a speculative approach to natural history drawing that highlights multispecies interdependency and foregrounds an ethics of care towards the more-than-human.
Nolan’s work has been selected for national awards, including the Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize (2023), Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (2022), Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award (2022, 2019), Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing (2021), National Capital Art Prize (2022) and Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize (2019). She has won the Tim Olsen Drawing Prize (2018) and the Kudos Emerging Artist and Designer Award (2018) and received the Drawing Award in The North Sydney Art Prize (2019). She has received Highly Commended in the Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award (2021), the Wyndham Art Prize (2021), the Kudos Emerging Artist and Designer Award (2019), and the Tim Olsen Drawing Prize (2016). Nolan has exhibited internationally at Arts Catalyst London and Xinying Cultural Centre, Taiwan.