History and Education
Born in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, I studied Diploma of Visual Art, majoring in Printmaking, at Prahran Institute of Technology and RMIT (1970) and a Graduate Diploma at Monash University (1986). After undertaking teacher training (1972) I taught visual art, predominantly in the post-secondary sector, for around 30 years. During that time, I was also involved in curriculum writing and the development of teaching resources. Since 2001, after relocating to Far North Queensland, I have been a full-time artist. I was awarded a PhD by James Cook University in 2018. Alongside my exhibition practice, I have curated exhibitions and managed arts projects and programs and been an office-bearer for arts organisations, including Print Council of Australia (1983-86), and InkMasters Cairns (2011-22).
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With solo exhibitions, numerous small group and invitation/prize/traveling exhibitions within Australia and internationally, I have exhibited widely since 1970. My work is represented in public and private collections in Australia and overseas. Using traditional and contemporary printmaking media, drawing, collage and mixed media and installation, I critique images of women in fine art and popular culture. The politics of representing women’s bodies in a contemporary practice is addressed through examination of images of women across historical eras that form part of our visual landscape – images that objectify, commodify and disempower. Aspects of second wave feminist art, where patriarchal imaging of women’s bodies and historical assumptions about ‘woman as nature’ began to be challenged, are both celebrated and critiqued in recent work that centres on the power of the female body as a medium for women’s experience. I enlist parodic humour to invigorate past representations of the body in a current context. Mythical figures from Greco-Roman mythology, for example, are deployed as motifs and bearers of meaning. The power of materials to evoke meaning and sensual and aesthetic pleasure in looking (for women) is also explored.
EDUCATION & HISTORY
SELECTED CV
Exhibitions - Solo
2017 Venus Rising, Furies Raging: Bodies Redressed, Umbrella Studios, Townsville
2015-16 Re-representation, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns
2012 Imagining and Imaging, Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, Townsville
2010 Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
2008 Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
2006 Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
2006 Girlie!, Cairns Regional Gallery
1985 Works Gallery, Geelong
1983 Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney
1983 Bolitho Gallery, ACT
1979 Hawthorn City Art Gallery, Melbourne
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Exhibitions - Selected Group
2023 Mini Print Cantabria Collection at Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, Spain
2023 Mini Print Cantabria vi, Faro Cabo Mayor Art Centre, Spain
2023 Thinking of Place iii, University of Kragujevac Gallery, The University Library in Kragujevac, Serbia; Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand; The Baird Gallery, Rangi Ruru Girl’s School, Christchurch, New Zealand; Ruffin Gallery, Ruffin Hall, University of Virginia, Charlotsville, USA; Isla Center for the Arts, University of Guam
2023 MiniPrint Cantabria Collection, Castle Lighthouse, Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, Spain
2022 When you think about feminism, what do you think?​ Feminisms 1975-2022, George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne
2022 WOW, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns
2022 Thinking of Place iii, NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns; Corbans Estate Arts Centre, New Zealand; Thompson Rivers University Art Gallery, Kamloops, Canada; Impact 12 International Print Conference, UWE Bristol, UK; Forma Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Limerick School of Art and Design, Technological University of the Shannon, Ireland
2022 MiniPrint Cantabria Collection, University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska Art Gallery, Lublin, Poland
2021 MiniPrint Cantabria Collection, Cervantes Institute, Bordeaux, France
2021 InkMasters Print Exhibition 21, Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns
2019 MiniPrint Cantabria, Spain
2018-20 Thinking of Place ii, Impact 12 International Print Conference, Biblioteca Central de Cantabria, Spain; Arthaus Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand; NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, Australia
2018 Common Strangers: Close Encounters, Impact 10, Santander, Spain
2018 InkMasters Print Exhibition 18, Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns
2017 Partners in Print, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns & Spot 81 Gallery, Sydney
2017 Flavours of the Tropics, Vivo Artroom, Palm cove, Cairns
2016-17 Postcards From North and South, Hawkes Bay Printmakers, New Zealand; Umbrella Studios, Townsville; Fire Station Print Studio, Melbourne
2016 Eight by Ten, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns
2016 InkMasters Print Exhibition 16, Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns
2016 Her letters: shifting perspectives in the global age of anxiety, Shophouse 5, Singapore
2016 Recent Works, Tablelands Regional Gallery, Atherton
2015-16 Thinking of Place, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns; Eastside Gallery, Christchurch; Depot Artspace, Auckland; Post Office Gallery, Federation University, Ballarat
2015 Encounter, Canopy Art Centre, Cairns
2015 Northern Encounter, Impress Gallery and Studio, Brisbane
2015 Beastie and the Beaut: old tales new skins, Artroom & Vivo, Palm Cove, Qld
2015 Sorority, Tanks Art Centre, Cairns
2014 Merge, Canopy Art Centre, Cairns
2014 Sub-0, Tanks Art Centre, Cairns
2014 Wanderlust, Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts, Brisbane; Manhattan Graphics Studio, New York; Gallery 107, Dalby, Qld
2014 Compact Prints, Umbrella Studios, Townsville; travelling nationally and internationally
2014 Postcards from the North and South, Umbrella Studios, Townsville; Firestation Print Studio, Armidale, Vic; Cork Printmakers Gallery, Ireland; The Framing Salon, London
2014 Of Sense and Sensibilities, Canopy Art Centre, Cairns
2014 Sentinels, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns and Tablelands Regional Gallery, Atherton
2013/14 Inside / Out: Mapping spiritual journeys, Circa1907, Cairns - touring Queensland via Artslink
2013 Heat and Serve, Curator’s Choice, KickArts Contemporary Arts, Cairns
2013 Paper: Works On and Of, Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns
2013 Starkers: from naked to nude, Canopy Artspace, Cairns
2013 Laurel McKenzie David Gatiss Don Gore, Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne
2013 Conform / Confront, Hong Kong Graphic Arts Fiesta
2013 Asian Influence, Canopy Artspace, Cairns
2013 Body Languages, Artroom @ Vivo, Palm Cove
Awards
1981 Moya Dyring Studio residency, Cite Internationale des arts, Paris
Collections
National Gallery of Australia
Cite Internationale des arts, Paris
Hamilton Collection - Australian Prints in Schools
La Trobe Valley Regional Art Gallery
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery
Artbank Australia
Victorian College of the Arts School
Faro Cabo Mayor Art Center, Cantabria, Spain
Australian and international private collections
NorthSite Contemporary Arts
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Dress Ups (detail) cotton, thread, archival pigment ink, acrylic hangers, wooden pegs, twine 240x440x10cm 2015-16
