Michaela Gleave is a visual artist living and working in Sydney, Australia.  Her practice concerns the peripheries of sensorial perception, and centres on naturally occurring, everyday phenomena that test the boundaries of perceptual experience.  Working with materials such as cloud, light, rain and ice within constructed, architectural spaces, Gleave’s often-illusory installations hover at the junction between art and science, operating between the spaces of personal experience and global understanding.  Returning repeatedly to the atmosphere and global airspace as the site for her work, Gleave’s installations and interventions question the relationship we have with our surroundings, allowing us to experience the processes by which we comprehend reality and rethink our presence within it. 

Gleave was born in remote central Australia before moving to North-West Tasmania as a child.  She holds a MFA in Sculpture, Performance and Installation from the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, and a BFA Honours First Class from the School of Art Hobart, University of Tasmania.  Gleave has recently been awarded the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship to facilitate a research program in Iceland, Berlin and Central Australia during 2010 and has upcoming public projects in both Melbourne and Sydney.  In 2008 Gleave completed a directorship at Firstdraft Gallery in Sydney and is currently a resident artist at Workshop Showroom.  She is a board member of runway magazine and a member of the dialogue-based collective The Free Association.

Qualifications

2007, Master of Fine Arts by Research, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales

2003, Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honors) Upper First Class, School of Art, Hobart University of Tasmania

1998, Associate Diploma of Music, Australian Music Examinations Board

Solo Exhibitions

2009, Upcoming, MOP Projects, Sydney, NSW, AU

2007, Constructing Space: Experiments in Light, Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney, NSW, AU

2007, Cloud Field, Kudos Gallery, Sydney, NSW, AU

2006, Raining Room (Diamond Dust), Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney, NSW, AU

2002, Between the Cracks (Recent Explorations in Sugar), Republic Gallery, Hobart, TAS, AU

2002, (h)ours<e> (in Collaboration with Benjamin Wright), Entrepot Gallery, Hobart, TAS, AU

Group Exhibitions

2010, Upcoming: No Risk Too Great, Next Wave Festival, Melbourne CBD, VIC, AU

2009, Upcoming: Primavera 09, Curated by Jeff Khan, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW, AU

2009, Upcoming: Unto the Breach (Dear Friends), Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney, NSW, AU

2009,  Kimbriki, EcoForum 09, Australian Technology Park, Sydney, NSW, AU

2009, Game is Good, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney, NSW, AU

2008, Membrane, Next Wave Festival, Federation Square, Melbourne, VIC, AU

2008, Runway - Conversations, curated by Anneke Jaspers, publication launch, ICAN, Sydney, NSW, AU

2008, Cash and Carry, MOP Projects, Sydney, NSW

2008, Single Poster Seeks Same, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney, NSW, AU

2008, Salút, See Street Gallery, Sydney, NSW, AU

2008, Marrickville Contemporary Art Prize, Crissie Cotter Gallery, Sydney, NSW, AU

2008, By George! Art and About Laneway Festival, Sydney CBD, NSW, AU

2007, Shelf Life, Curated by Nicholas Vickers, Delmar Gallery, Sydney, NSW, AU

2007, Vive Le Bonheur!, Curated by Cecelia Huynh, Workshop Showroom, Sydney, NSW, AU

2007, Square Dance, Firstdraft, Sydney, NSW, AU

2007, Marrickville Contemporary Art Prize, At the Vanishing Point, Sydney,NSW, AU

2007, Raise High the Roof Beam, BUS Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, AU

2007, From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come), Curated by Elizabeth Reidy, Presented by ½ Doz., Chauvel Cinema, Sydney, NSW, AU

2006, Better Than It Really Is, INFLIGHT Art, Hobart, TAS, AU

2006, Red Wall Gallery Launch, Red Wall Gallery, Hobart, TAS, AU

2005, Are we there yet? (The Sublime Project), Curated by Christine Bradburn and Alicia  Ritson, Phatspace, Sydney, NSW, AU

2004, Hatched, National Graduate Survey Show, Perth Institute of Contemporary

Arts, Perth, WA, AU

2003, BFA (hons), Plimsol Gallery, School of Art, Hobart, TAS, AU

2003, Kylie’s Dog Dreams of Paradise, Curated by Caroline Rose, INFLIGHT Art,

Hobart, TAS, AU

2002, Down the Garden Path, Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart, TAS, AU

2002, Global House Project, Curated by Shaun Wilson, Various Site-specific Locations, New York and San Francisco, USA

2002, Brush Strokes, Side Space, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart, TAS, AU

2002, Inside-Out, Fine Arts Gallery, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, AU

2001, Transistor, Entrepot Galleries, Hobart, TAS, AU

2001, Shoe Box, Entrepot Galleries, Hobart, TAS, AU

   

Awards/Grants/Residencies

2010, Upcoming: NES Artists Residency, Iceland

2010, Upcoming: Watch This Space, Studio Residency, Alice Springs, Australia

2009-2010, Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship

2009, Firstdraft Emerging Curator Grant, Firstdraft Gallery

2007, Highly Commended, Marrickville Contemporary Art Prize

2005-2007, Awarded an Australian Postgraduate Association Scholarship

2006, GAS Grant Recipient, CoFA Student Association Arts Presentation Grant

2001 & 2002, Admitted to the Dean’s Role of Excellence, University of Tasmania

2001, Admitted to The International Golden Key Honour Society

Curatorial Projects

2009, Game is Good, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney, NSW,AU

2007, Square Dance, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney, NSW, AU

2006, 20LOVE, Festival Program, Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney, NSW, AU

2002, Inside-Out, Fine Arts Gallery, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, AU

2001, Shoe Box, Entrepot Galleries, Hobart, TAS, AU

Theatrical Projects

2008, The Whale Chorus, directed by Janie Gibson, PACT Theatre, Sydney, AU

Publications/Lectures

2009, Kate Scardifield, Focus on NSW, NAVA Quarterly, March 09, p13

2009, Game is Good, Canvas Arts Program, FBI Radio Interview, Presenter: Matthew Levinson

2009, Josephine Tovery, Game is Good, Open Gallery, The Sydney Morning Herald, January 17-18 2009

2009, Rachel Elliot-Jones, Game is Good, Two-Thousand Magazine, December 12

2008, Structural Integrity, Forum presentation, Next Wave Festival, Melbourne,

May 25, hosted by Anna Tweedale

2008, Michaela Gleave, En Plein Air - Tessa Rapaport and Karl Logge, Catalogue

essay, Next Wave Festival Publication, July 2008

2008, Next Wave Tsunami, Forum presentation, Quarter Bred #5, PACT Theatre,

Erskineville, June 22

2008, Re: View - Reflections on ATVP April 2007 - March 2008, Ed. Brendan Penzer,

Pickafight Books, ISBN 9780780494006

2007, Michaela Gleave, Constructing Space: Experiments in Light, Feature Article,

College Voice, Volume 5, Issue 1, Winter 2007

2007, Emerging: Artist-Run-Initiatives, Public Seminar, Professional Practice

Program, National Art School, August 2007

2007, Generation Green, Postgraduate Feature, Sydney Morning Herald, April 22

2007, Good Weekend Magazine, Sydney Morning Herald, May 12 2007

2006, Constructing Space: Experiments in Light, School of Art Research Seminar,

College of Fine Arts, October 2006

2006, The Art Life, Raining Room (Diamond Dust), April, 2006

2005, Christine Bradburn and Alica Ritson, Are We There Yet (The Sublime Project), Catalogue Essay, June 2005, ISBN 0-646-44990-7

2004, Briony Downes, Undiscovered Artists: Michaela Gleave, Feature, Australian Art Collector, Issue 28, April – June, 2004, p 95

2001, Art In Zero Gravity, Public Lecture, School of Art, Hobart, University of Tasmania, September 2001

2001, Lucien Simons, Transistor, Review, Festival Magazine, Hobart, Tasmania,

2001, pg 7

2001, Anthony Curtis, Art Reviews, Review, Togatus, University of Tasmania Student Magazine, Issue no. 8, 2001, p 30

Current Positions

Board Member, runway Magazine, Sydney, NSW, AU

Board Member, The Free Association, Sydney, NSW, AU

Resident Artist, Workshop Studios, Sydney, NSW, AU

Technical Officer, Sydney Gallery School, Sydney, NSW, AU

Previous Positions

2006-2008, Co-Director, Firstdraft Gallery, Surry Hills, NSW, AU

2006-2008, Art Assistant, St. Catherine’s School, Waverly, NSW, AU

2007-2008, Technical Assistant, Tinsheds Gallery, Darlington, NSW, AU

2007, Install Technician, Delmar Gallery, Summerhill, NSW, AU

2007, Teacher and Program Coordinator, After-School Art, St. Catherine’s School, Waverly, NSW, AU

2005, Intern, Artspace, Wooloomooloo, NSW, AU

2002, President, Tasmanian University Union Sculpture Society, Hobart, TAS, AU

2002, Board Member, Entrepot Gallery, Hobart, TAS, AU, AU

2000-2003, Flute Tutor, St. Mary’s College, Hobart, TAS, AU

1999, Au Pair, West Sussex, UK

1997-1998, Flute Tutor, Marist Regional College, Burnie, TAS, AU

1995-1998, Private Flute Tutor, North-West Coast, TAS, AU