Artist Statement
As a proud palawa woman with strong connections to my ancestral home of tebrakunna in the north-east of Tasmania, my art practice acts to develop a visual language around personal and hidden histories.
Working in sculpture, installation and filmic art, my work explores issues around Aboriginal identity and heritage, racism, resistance and survival. The using of objects from my material culture contribute to ongoing artistic investigations into the impact of Colonisation, acting as signifiers of endurance and resilience. By reimagining cultural artefacts I am responding to repressed historical encounters in order to empower Indigenous experience.
My practice is centred around reclaiming and reconnecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities whose sense of self and relationship to culture, the land, the ancestors and country still hold strong.
I make works to assert my sovereignty.
Artist Bio & CV
Mandy Quadrio was born in Melbourne, Australia. Her sculptural art and interactive works generate alternative political and social dialogue against a background of contested Australian histories. Using found objects and items of her material culture, through her work she achieves public and personal meaning through the politics of their material. Mandy graduated from a Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University in 2016. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in 2017.
Mandy Quadrio
Born: Melbourne, Australia
Mob/Country: pairabeene clan, tebrakunna, North-east Tasmania
Education
2018 – PhD candidate, Queensland College of Arts (QCA), Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland
2017 – Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) 1st Class, QCA, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland
2014 – 2016 Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art (C.A.I.A.), Queensland College of Art (QCA), Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland
2013 – Certificate III in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts, Southbank Institute of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland
2002 – 2007 Bachelor of Arts (Anthropology), University of Queensland (partial completion)
Exhibitions
2018 (Upcoming) Around and Within, Barangaroo, Sydney
2018 Unleashed, Artisan, Bowen Hills, Brisbane
2018 Converse, Boxcopy Contemporary Art Space, Brisbane
2018 Speaking Beyond the Vitrine, Solo Exhibition, Metro Arts, Brisbane
2018 Finalist Hatched, National Graduate Show, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth
2018 Continuing Culture, Maiwar Festival, Art Space Vitrines, Queen & Edward Street, Elizabeth & Edward Streets, Brisbane City , Brisbane City Council
2017 Flying Arts Exhibition, Judith Wright Centre, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
2017 Continuum, Queensland College of Art Honours graduate showcase, Brisbane
2016 Sculpture 16, Queensland College of Art graduate showcase, Brisbane
2016 (Contributed to) Art of the Skins, Possum Skin Cloak Project, State Library of Queensland
2016 A Unified Field, Art from the Margins, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
2016 Kultcha, Jugglers Artspace, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
2015 Blak History Month, St Andrews War Memorial Hospital, Brisbane
2014 Away from Country, Project Gallery, QCA, Brisbane Link
2011 Finalist, Moreton Bay Regional Art Awards, Brisbane
Awards
2017 Griffith University Medal for Outstanding Academic Excellence
2017 St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital Award for Artistic Merit, Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours)
Collections
St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
Public Art
2018 Continuing Culture, Maiwar Festival, Art Space Vitrines, Queen & Edward Street, Elizabeth & Edward Streets, Brisbane City , Brisbane City Council
2017 Challenging the Aesthetics of Mythic Identity, Queensland College of Art Undercroft, Griffith University, Brisbane