Elizabeth Presa facts for kids

Elizabeth Presa (born in 1956) is an Australian artist and teacher who lives in Melbourne. She creates sculptures using many different materials and methods. Some of her art pieces use plaster to explore feelings, life, and the environment. She is also a writer and has worked as a curator (someone who organizes art shows) and a gallery director. Elizabeth is the mother of another artist, Anastasia Klose, and they sometimes work together on art projects.

Elizabeth Presa's Journey in Art and Teaching

Elizabeth Presa studied art at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. She earned a diploma in sculpture in 1977. She continued her studies at the Phillip Institute and the University of Melbourne. Later, she earned two advanced degrees (a Masters and a PhD) in critical theory and literature from Monash University.

She started teaching art philosophy in 1980 at Riverina College. From 1984 to 1985, she taught sculpture at the Melbourne Centre for Adult Education. After that, she taught at Victoria College Prahran.

In 1993, she began teaching at the School of Art at the Victorian College of the Arts. By 2003, she became the head of the Victorian College of the Arts Centre for Ideas. Here, she focused on creating new ways to teach and research across different art forms, like visual art and performing arts. She has also visited many universities around the world as a guest lecturer and artist. One special project she did was called "Interior Castle: St Teresa of Avila, architectures of space" in Massachusetts, USA.

Organizing Art Shows (Curation)

Elizabeth Presa was the director of the Wagga Wagga Regional Gallery from 1978 to 1979.

She has also worked as a curator for several art projects called 'Do It' with Hans Ulrich Obrist. One of these projects was with the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China.

Her ongoing work includes a series of projects about beehives, titled ‘Apian Utopias: Small Architecture for Bees’. These projects and exhibitions have been shown in Tokyo, the US, Beijing, New Zealand, and Australia. She is very interested in how philosophy and art connect.

Selected Art Exhibitions

Here are some of the art shows where Elizabeth Presa's work has been featured:

• Garden of small nuptials, a sculpture show in Ghent, Belgium (2017)
• Of Martyrium and Reliquary, with Mireille Eid, at Articulate Project Space, Sydney (2017)
• Views for the Future Vol. 16 (bricolage), in Tokyo, Japan (2016)
• Art Space Mooni, Morioka, Japan (2016/17)
• Animal/Human/Artist curated by Janine Burke, at McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin (2016)
• Lorne Sculpture Biennale, curated by Julie Collins, Lorne, Victoria (2014)
• Gallery TEN, Tokyo-Yanaka; 2017 Art Space Mooni, Morioka, Japan (2012)
• Interior Castle, with architect Gregory Burgess, at Linden Contemporary Arts Centre, Melbourne (2010)
• Dear Jean Jacques, at Cite International des Arts, Paris (2007)
• Milk River, Meru Art Gallery, Brooklyn, New York (2002)
• The Four Horizons of the Page, Linden Gallery, Melbourne (2000)

Selected Artworks

Here are some of Elizabeth Presa's artworks:

• The Heart of the Matter (2018)
• Nothing (2018)
• Translation as a material practice (2017)
• Martyrium and Reliquary (2017)
• Birth to sartorial presence (2017)
• Garden of small nuptials (2017)
• human/animal/artist (2016)
• Bricolage (2016)
• Playland (2016)
• Nativity (2015)
• Life must first imitate matter (2015)
• Ways of Being: transitional objects and the work of art (2015)
• Small Utopias: architecture for bees – (beehive village) (2014)
• An Other Economy (2014)
• Apian Utopias: Small Architecture for Bees (Part 1: Tokyo Beehives) (2013)
• Echidna Body/Human Body (2013)