eX De Medici facts for kids

eX De Medici is a famous Australian artist. She creates many different kinds of art, including paintings, drawings, photographs, and large art installations. Her artworks often explore ideas about power and violence. You might see recurring symbols like skulls, helmets, guns, and even the swastika symbol in her pieces.

Her art has been shown all over Australia. Important places like the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) and the Canberra Museum and Gallery own her works. She has also been an Artist Fellow at CSIRO, which is Australia's national science agency. In 2009, she was even an official war artist for the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands. Her work will be a key part of the NGA's big exhibition, Know My Name, which celebrates Australian women artists.

Early Life and Art School

eX De Medici was born on April 12, 1959, in a town called Coolamon in New South Wales. She grew up in Canberra, the capital city of Australia.

She studied art at the Canberra School of Art. There, she learned about different art forms like performance art, installation art (where art is set up in a space), and photography.

Later, in 1988, she got her first tattoo. For the next 12 years, she worked as a tattoo artist. She even traveled to Los Angeles to learn more about tattooing. During the 1990s, she showed her tattoo designs and photos of her tattoo work in exhibitions.

Her Artworks

eX De Medici was very active in the art community in Canberra. She helped start the Contemporary Art Space in Canberra, which is a place where modern art is shown.

In 1998, she saw some very old and detailed botanical art paintings of Australian plants. These paintings were made with watercolour. She noticed how similar the detailed style was to her own tattoo art. This inspired her to start painting with watercolours in a very precise and detailed way.

She then lived on Norfolk Island for 18 months (from 1998 to 2000). During this time, she worked on a large watercolour painting called Blue [Bower/Bauer]. This artwork included details of flowers, fruit, porcelain, and skulls. It also connected to her own family history. The National Gallery of Australia bought this painting in 2004.

After returning to Australia, she started a detailed painting of moths. She asked Australia's science organization, CSIRO, for help with her research. She ended up working with CSIRO as an Artist Fellow for twelve years!

In 2009, she became an official war artist for the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands. This meant she created art about the experiences of soldiers and peacekeepers in that mission.

Exhibitions and Important Works

eX De Medici has shown her art in many exhibitions. In 1986, one of her photocopy artworks was shown in an exhibition called "The Printed Image."

She also took part in a big art exchange event in Perth and Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1987. For this event, she created art using photocopiers. She placed these images in public places and changed them regularly.

One of her important works, "Scenes from an Ivory Tower," was shown in Canberra in 1987. This large artwork was made from many laser photocopies. It explored ideas about power and control, especially how they relate to women.

Her painting Cure For Pain was given to the Australian War Memorial in 2017. This was a very important donation.

In 2020-21, her artwork The wreckers was shown in the "Know my name: Australian women artists 1900 to now" exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.