MEGAN COPE
Quandamooka People
Born Brisbane, 1982.
Qualifications
2006 – Bachelor of Visual Arts (Visual Communication), Deakin University, Victoria
Select Solo Exhibitions
2021
Canberra Glassworks, ACT
Fractures & Frequencies, UNSW Galleries, University of NSW, Sydney
2019
The Black Napoleon, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
Flight or fight, Australian War Artist, Australian War Memorial, Canberra
2016 – Bereft, Artspace, Sydney
2015
The Blaktism, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
The Blaktism, This Is No Fantasy + dianne tanzer gallery, Melbourne
2013 – The Tide is High, Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne
2012 – Deep Water – Spiro Grace Art Rooms, Brisbane
Select Group Exhibitions
2021
– TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters, TarraWarra museum of Art, Victoria
– Image is not Nothing (Concrete Archives), ACE Open, ACE Gallery, South Australia (Touring)
– OCCURRENT AFFAIR: proppaNOW, University of Queensland, Brisbane
2020
– MCA Collection: Perspectives on place, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
– NGV Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
– 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres, South Australia
– do it (australia), Kaldor Public Art Projects, Online
– Rite of Passage, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane
2019
– Water, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
– Great Movements of Feeling, Next Wave Festival, NETS Victoria (Touring)
– Violent Salt, Artspace Mackay, QLD (Touring)
– Material Place: Reconsidering Australian Landscapes, UNSW Galleries, University of NSW, Sydney
– Haunt, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
– Concrete, Jam Factory, Adelaide (Touring)
– A World of One’s Own, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria
– THE UTOPIAN OBJECT – c3 Annual Fundraiser, Melbourne
– Firstdraft Auction, Firstdraft, Sydney
2018
– Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh
– Installation Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Sydney
– Octopus 18: Mother Tongue, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne
– Ex Embassy, Former Australian Embassy, Berlin
– TARNANTHI Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Adelaide
2017
– Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
– The National 2019: New Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
– Unfinished Business: Perspectives on art and feminism, ACCA, Melbourne
– Coast: the artists’ retreat, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria
– Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales
– Sovereignty, ACCA, Melbourne
– Another Day in Paradise, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney
2016
– Frontier Imaginaries, Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jerusalem
– Bereft, Artspace, Sydney
– Frontier Imaginaries, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane
– proppaNOW, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne
– Re-visioning Histories, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne
– Ideas Platform exhibition, Artspace, Sydney
– Ku-ring-gai pH, Manly Art Gallery & Museum
– Dead Centre, Edith Cowan University, Perth
– 40 Years of 3CR, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne
– Women, Art and Politics, Footscrazy Community Arts Centre, Melbourne
2015
– Western Australian Indigenous Art Award, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
– Lost in Translocation, RMIT Project Space, Melbourne
– BLAKOUT, Sydney College of Art Galleries, University of Sydney
– Lifelines: Indigenous Contemporary Art from Australia, Musées de la Civilisation in Québec, Canada
– Dead Ringer, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth
2014
– Saltwater Country, Gold Coast City Art Gallery
– From Where I Stand, Bunjilaka (Melbourne Museum), Melbourne
2013
– A Journal of the Plague Year, Para Site, Hong Kong
– My Country, I Still Call Australia Home, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
Curatorial and Community Projects
2015/16 – Creative Producer, Indigenous Cultural Program – Footscray Community Arts Center
2011 – Co-Curator, Art with Altitude, Urban Art Projects & Brisbane Airport
2009/10 – Creative Director, BARI Festival
2006/09 – Co-Director, tinygold ARI
Awards | Grants | Residencies
2020
Canberra Glassworks Residency, ACT
Australian Council for the Arts, Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups – Grant Recipient
57th Annual Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre, NSW – Finalist
2019 – Hornsby Art Prize, NSW – Finalist
2018
– Konica Minolta Redland Art Award, NSW – Finalist
– Sovereign Words, Dhaka Art Summit (Artspace Sydney and OCA Norway), Bangladesh
– Cementa 19, Kandos, NSW
– Australian Print Workshop, French Connections, Paris
2017
– Bundanon Art Residency, The Long Paddock, NSW
– Redcliffe Art Award, QLD
2016 – Ku-ring-gai pH Residency, NSW
2015 – Winner, WA Indigenous Art Award, WA
2012 – Arts QLD, Rural Residency, Tambo QLD
2011
– Churchie Emerging Art Prize – Finalist
– NEWflames Inc, Canopy Artspace, Cairns FNQ
2009
– Sunshine Coast Art Prize – Finalist
– Clayton Ultz Travelling Scholarship – Finalist
– Deakin University – Indigenous Arts Faculty
2008 Highly Commended, Gold Coast Indigenous Art & Design Award
Collections
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
National Gallery of Victoria
Queensland Art Gallery |Gallery of Modern Art
Monash University Art Collection
National Gallery Australia
Australian War Memorial
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Melbourne Museum
Redcliffe City Art Gallery
Queensland University of Technology Art Museum
NEWflames Anne Gamble Myer Collection
Musées de la Civilisation: Canada
Artbank
Darebin Art Collection
Public Artworks | Commissions
2019
– Weelam Ngalut (Our Place), Monash University Museum of Art, Clayton Campus, Melbourne
– James Cook University, Central Plaza Commission, Townsville
2018 – Official War Artist, Australian War Memorial
2017 – St George Hospital, Kogerah, NSW
2016
-Transcendance, The Koorie Art Commission, Melbourne Museum, Melbourne
– State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
– Yunggulba, MAIWAR 2016 (Curated by Blaklash Collective), Fish Lane, Brisbane
– Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane
– State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
2015 – Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
2014
– Brisbane Magistrates Court (as a part of G20 Summit), Brisbane
– State Library of Queensland, Brisbane
– Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane
2013 – My Country, I Still Call Australia Home, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane The River, Museum of Brisbane
2012
– The River, Museum of Brisbane
– NEWflames, Video Installation, QPAC Theater, Brisbane
2011– Moreton Bay Regional Council – Public Art, Charlish Park
2010 – Mater Hospital, South Brisbane
Select Bibliography
2021
Deep Waters: TarraWarra 2021 Biennial – Amelia Winata; The Saturday Paper
Listening to country: ‘Fractures- & Frequencies’ and ‘Infractions’ – Anwen Crawford; The Monthly
2020
Deep Listening with Megan Cope – Interview with Julianne Cordray; ArtConnect Magazine
Art Show with Namila Benson – Wednesday 15 April 2020, ABC Radio National (starts 45:03)
Native Title’s Compensation Provisions Require Careful Attention – Louise Martin-Crew; Engineering for Public Works
L’arte aborigena rivela l’Australia – Maria Adelaide Marchesoni in Il Sole, 24 Ore
Australian artists tap into current fears and past nightmares in Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art – Dee Jefferson; ABC News
Monsters in the gallery: Adelaide biennial invites the chaos of the unknown – Jane Howard; The Guardian
Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres – Andy Butler; The Saturday Paper
‘Meth Kelly’ and colonial monsters: Australia’s biggest art shows get Indigenous rewrite – Steve Dow; The Guardian
A meeting of monsters at the Adelaide Biennial brings us closer to our fears – Catherine Speck; The Conversation
Review: Monster Theatres – 2020 Adelaide Biennial, Art Gallery of SA – Gina Fairley; ArtsHub
Adelaide biennial: the fright stuff – John McDonald; Brisbane Times
James Cook University central plaza complete – Architecture AU
New $5 Million Plaza Opens at JCU Campus – Townsville Bulletin
JCU’s stunning Central Plaza opens – Mirage News
Cook through the eyes of five curators – Gina Fairley; ArtsHub
250 years on, Cook’s legacy examined in art – Mirage News
2019
Water exhibition in Brisbane proves a wellspring of ideas for positive action against climate change. – Dee Jefferson; ABC
Water: the universal solvent; ABC Radio National
How a peaceful Aboriginal artist got on with the Australian forces in the Middle East – Steve Evans; Canberra TimesSacred ground – Phil Brown; Brisbane News
2018
Resistance Reviewed – Natalie Furnas; Fine Print
2017
A City Built On Shell Middens; ABC TV
Artist profile: Megan Cope; ABC Arts
Invisible Agency: An interview with Megan Cope – Mariam Arcilla; Runway Journal
Material Politics – Lu Forsberg; UN Projects
Upside down/right way up: Historiography of contemporary ‘Australian’ art – Helen Hughes; The National
Material Politics – Henrietta Wilson; Art Asia Pacific
Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial – Sasha Grishin; The Age
2016
Megan Cope’s Blaktism – Graham Mathwin; Sensible Perth
Art Collector, Issue 75, Jan-Mar, p160
When volcanoes clash: Transcendence tells Australia’s history through Indigenous eyes – Andrew Stephens; The Age
Studio: Megan Cope – Toby Fehily; Art Guide Australia
2015
Frontier Wars between Indigenous people and settlers the focus of Wyndham Art Gallery exhibition – Dylan Rainforth; SMH
WA Indigenous Art Award: Megan Cope’s The Blaktism questions authenticity obsession – Dylan Rainforth; The Age
WA Indigenous art award winner explores Aboriginal identity and authenticity – Chloe Papas; ABC Radio – Perth
Megan Cope’s ‘Blaktism’ video wins top indigenous art award – Victoria Laurie; The Australian
2014
Artist Megan Cope takes a fresh look at the question of identity – Kylie Northover; The Age
The Blaktism – Professor Steve Larkin; Metro Arts
2013
Toponymic Interventions #2 – Sarah Werkmeister; Level ARI