Maree Clarke is a

Mutti Mutti The Muthi Muthi people are an indigenous Australian people whose traditional lands are located in the Northern Riverina and Far West regions of New South Wales. The Muthi Muthi are the traditional owners of Nimmie Caira and the Lowbidgee and s ...

Yorta Yorta The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales ...

BoonWurrung The Boonwurrung people are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria. Their territory includes part of what is now the c ...

Wemba Wemba The Wemba-Wemba are an Aboriginal Australian people in north-Western Victoria and south-western New South Wales, Australia, including in the Mallee and the Riverina regions. They are also known as the Wamba-Wamba. Language Wemba-Wemba bears ...

woman living in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, known for her work as a

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

and artist. Clarke is a multidisciplinary artist renowned for her work in reviving South-eastern Aboriginal Australian art practices.

Career

Maree Clarke, a

woman, grew up in and around

Mildura Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point and Merbein are included, the area h ...

in North Western Victoria. She began working as an educator in her home town in 1978, which provided her with a solid base from which to develop her career in promoting and supporting South-East Aboriginal histories, culture and knowledge. Along with her brother and sister, Clarke established Kiah Krafts, an Aboriginal arts enterprise, in Mildura. She has lived in

since 1988. The

City of Port Phillip The City of Port Phillip is a local government area of Victoria, Australia on the northern shores of Port Phillip, south of Melbourne's central business district. It has an area of 20.7 km² and had a population of 113,200 in June 2018. P ...

became the first Victorian local government to establish a centre dedicated to actively promoting Aboriginal arts and culture, creating the first Koori Arts Unit in St Kilda. Clark was the first Koori Arts Officer from 1994 to 1998, and instrumental in its success. In 1996, Clarke curated, with Kimba Thompson and Len Tregonning, the ''We Iri We Homeborn'' Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Festival. Her collaborations with these two artists as well as Sonja Hodge can be seen in

public art Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...

works around the city of Melbourne.

Artistic career

Clarke works across a range of mediums including photography, sculpture, painting and jewellery. Research and revival of cultural practices which have been lost as a result of colonisation form an important part of Clarke's art practice. Clarke goes to museums to research and work with objects in their collections. Her work has seen her become a pivotal figure in the reclamation of cultural and artistic practices of South Eastern Australian Aboriginal peoples. Her work has included eel traps,

kopis The term kopis ( grc, Κόπις) in Ancient Greece could describe a heavy knife with a forward-curving blade, primarily used as a tool for cutting meat, for ritual slaughter and animal sacrifice, or refer to a single edged cutting or "cut and ...

, possum skin cloak-making, and kangaroo tooth necklaces (''Thung-ung Coorang''). She is committed to preserving inter-generational memories of cultural practices.

Recognition

''Made from Memory (Nan’s house)'' (2017) was purchased by the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

in 2017 in recognition of the 50th Anniversary of the

1967 Referendum The 1967 Australian referendum occurred on 27 May 1967 under the Holt Government. It contained three topics asked about in two questions, regarding the passage of two bills to alter the Australian Constitution. The first question (''Constitution ...

. In 2021 Clarke was the first living Aboriginal artist to be featured in a solo exhibition in the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

in Melbourne. In 2022, a major retrospective of Clarke's works titled ''Ancestral Memories'' will be shown at the

in Melbourne.

Works

Solo exhibitions

* 2021 ''Ancestral Memories'',

, Melbourne * 2019 ''Eel Trap'' with Mitch Mahoney, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Footscray, Vic * 2019 ''Translating Culture'' with Mitch Mahoney,

Canberra Glassworks Canberra Glassworks is an Australian gallery in Canberra and glass art studio open to the general public to view the glass artists working. Opened in May 2007 by Jon Stanhope, it is the largest dedicated glass studio facility in Australia. P ...

, Kingston ACT * 2019 ''Ancestral Memory'', Treasury Gallery Old Quad,

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

, Melbourne * 2019 ''Reimagining Culture – Contemporary Connections to Culture'', Mildura Arts Centre, Mildura * 2018 ''Reimagining Culture'', Arts Space Wodonga,

Wodonga Wodonga ( Waywurru: ''Wordonga'') is a city on the Victorian side of the border with New South Wales, north-east of Melbourne, Australia. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Wodonga LGA. Its population is approximately ...

* 2015 ''Ritual: Connection to Country'', Koorie Heritage Trust, Melbourne * 2011 ''Ritual & Ceremony'', Bunjilaka Gallery,

Melbourne Museum The Melbourne Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. Located adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building, the museum was opened in 2000 as a project of the Government of Victoria, ...

, Melbourne

Group exhibitions

* 2019 ''Linear'',

Powerhouse Museum The Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney, the others being the historic Sydney Observatory at Observatory Hill, and the newer Museums Discovery Centre at Castle Hill. Although often de ...

, Sydney NSW * 2019 ''Indigenous Design'',

Parliament House, Canberra Parliament House, also referred to as Capital Hill or simply Parliament, is the meeting place of the Parliament of Australia, and the seat of the legislative branch of the Australian Government. Located in Canberra, the Parliament building is ...

ACT * 2019 ''The Women’s Show'', Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne VIC * 2018 ''Colony: Frontier Wars'',

, Melbourne VIC * 2018 ''Island Welcome'', Craft Victoria, Melbourne VIC * 2018 ''The Women’s Show'', Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne VIC * 2017 ''Defying Empire'': 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial,

, Canberra ACT * 2017 ''An Unorthodox flow of images'', Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne VIC (as part of The Melbourne Festival) * 2017 ''Get the picture (Melbourne 2017 Fringe Festival)'' Blak Dot Gallery, Brunswick, VIC * 2017 ''The Women’s Show'', Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne VIC * 2016 ''Sovereignty'', Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne, VIC * 2016 W''ho’s Afraid of Colour?''

, Melbourne VIC

Collections

Clarke's work is included in the following galleries and collections: *

Museum Victoria Museums Victoria is an organisation which operates three major state-owned museums in Melbourne, Victoria: the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum. It also manages the Royal Exhibition Building and a storage facili ...

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia, in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''National Muse ...

Monash University Museum of Art The Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), formerly the Monash University Gallery, is a contemporary art museum on Monash University's Caulfield campus on Dandenong Road, Melbourne, Australia. History The Museum grew out of a number of ear ...

* Monash University Art Collection, Prato Campus, Tuscany, Italy * Koori Heritage Trust * Stonington Council, Melbourne, Victoria * Port Phillip Council Art Collection, Melbourne, Victoria * Mildura Art Centre Collection,

Mildura, Victoria Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, New South Wales, Wentworth, Irymple, Victo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Maree Australian Aboriginal artists 20th-century Australian artists 20th-century Australian women artists 1961 births Living people 21st-century Australian women 21st-century Australian people