Patricia Piccinini
Identifies as: Australian
Language/Language Group: Italian, English
Instagram: @patricia.piccinini
Patricia Piccinini was born in Sierra Leone and lives in Melbourne. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts and Bachelor of Arts ( Economic History) from the Australian National University. Piccinini is Enterprise Professor in Visual Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.
Her work encompasses sculpture, photography, video and drawing and her practice examines the increasingly nebulous boundary between the artificial and the natural as it appears in contemporary culture and ideas. Her surreal drawings, hybrid animals and vehicular creatures question the way that contemporary technology and culture changes our understanding of what it means to be human and wonders at our relationships with – and responsibilities towards – that which we create. While ethics are central, her approach is ambiguous and questioning rather than moralistic and didactic.
In 2003 her exhibition We Are Family represented Australia at the 50th Venice Biennale before touring to the Hara Museum (Tokyo). Other solo museum exhibitions include ComCiência at CCBB (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte), Curious Affection at QAGOMA (Brisbane), En Kaerlig Verden at Arken (Copenhagen), Hold Me Close To Your Heart at Arter (Istanbul), Once Upon a Time at AGSA (Adelaide), as well as numerous solo and group shows and Biennials in Europe, UK, USA, South America, Asia and Australia. Notable groups exhibitions include The Universe and Art at Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Global Feminisms at the Brooklyn Museum and Face Up at the Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin). In 2013 she was commissioned by the Centenary of Canberra to create The Skywhale.