Karla Marchesi

Karla Marchesi’s work refracts the socio-cultural anxieties of our age, critiquing what it means to be human at this present moment, under the conditions of late capitalism and Anthropocentrism. Here she interweaves allegoric deconstruction of ide...

Karla Marchesi’s work refracts the socio-cultural anxieties of our age, critiquing what it means to be human at this present moment, under the conditions of late capitalism and Anthropocentrism. Here she interweaves allegoric deconstruction of ideological systems with autobiography, pathos and humour. Reimagining the ‘Impossible Bouquet’ popularised in 17th century Dutch Still Life painting, which position nature as possessable, Marchesi paints complex entanglements of multi-genus, fantastically hybridised flora in hyper-natural Post-Humanist scenes. In reimagined ecosystems, Marchesi presents non-human subjects as heroic, embodied with agency and generative possibility, subverting traditions of the genre and highlighting human folly, including her own. ………………………… Brisbane-born, Berlin-based artist Karla Marchesi has Bachelor of Fine Art (2004) and Honours in Fine Art (2007) degrees from the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, where she received the University Medal for academic excellence and the Honours Thesis Prize. Marchesi received the Philip Bacon Galleries Prize for Excellence in Drawing in 2003, enabling her to study for a semester at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, US. Marchesi has held solo exhibitions in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore, Luxembourg and Germany. In 2012 she undertook a studio residency at Atelierhaus Mengerzeile, Berlin that preceded her first international solo exhibition at Kunsthalle M3, Berlin. Marchesi is a recipient of the 1st Prize in the Redland Art Awards (2010), the Wilson Visual Arts Award (2012) and an Australia Council for the Arts Early Career New Work Grant (2013). Her work is included in a number of public collections including the Museum of Brisbane, Queensland University of Technology, the University of Queensland Art Museum, the Australian Catholic University, Swisse Re and several regional galleries. She is represented by Jan Manton Gallery, Brisbane, Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Melbourne, Australia and Verena Kerfin Gallery, Berlin, Germany.