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Maree Clarke facts for kids

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Maree Clarke (born in 1961) is an amazing Australian artist and curator from Victoria. She is famous for bringing back old Aboriginal art practices from southeastern Australia.

Early Life and Learning

Maree Clarke was born in 1961 in Swan Hill, Victoria. Her family comes from the Mutti Mutti, Yorta Yorta, BoonWurrung, and Wemba Wemba peoples. She grew up in and around Mildura in northern Victoria.

Her Career

Maree started working as an educator in her hometown in 1978. This helped her learn how to share and support Aboriginal histories, culture, and knowledge. With her brother and sister, she started a business called Kiah Krafts in Mildura to promote Aboriginal arts.

Later, the City of Port Phillip in St Kilda created the first Koori Arts Unit. This was a special place to promote Aboriginal arts and culture. Maree Clarke was the very first Koori Arts Officer there from 1994 to 1998. She helped make it a big success. In 1996, she helped organize an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Festival called We Iri We Homeborn. You can see her work with other artists like Kimba Thompson, Len Tregonning, and Sonja Hodge in public art around Melbourne.

Her Art

Maree Clarke creates art using many different methods. She uses photography, sculpture (making 3D art), painting, and even jewellery.

A very important part of Maree's art is researching and bringing back cultural practices that were lost because of colonization. She visits museums to study old objects in their collections. Her work has made her a key person in bringing back the cultural and artistic ways of South Eastern Australian Aboriginal peoples. She has recreated things like eel traps, kopis (mourning caps), possum skin cloaks, and kangaroo tooth necklaces, which are called Thung-ung Coorang. She really wants to keep these cultural memories alive for future generations.

Awards and Recognition

In 2017, Maree's artwork Made from Memory (Nan's house) was bought by the National Gallery of Australia. This was to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum, which was an important moment for Aboriginal rights.

In 2021, Maree Clarke became the first living Aboriginal artist to have her own solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. This was a huge achievement!

In 2022, a big show of her artworks called Ancestral Memories was displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.

In 2023, Maree won the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture. She won for her new work with glass and for her important role in the Victorian Indigenous art scene over the last thirty years.

Personal Life

Maree Clarke has lived in Melbourne since 1988.

Where Her Art Is Kept

Maree Clarke's art can be found in many important galleries and collections, including:

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

  • 2021 Ancestral Memories, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
  • 2019 Eel Trap with Mitch Mahoney, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Footscray, Victoria
  • 2019 Translating Culture with Mitch Mahoney, Canberra Glassworks, Kingston, ACT
  • 2019 Ancestral Memory, Treasury Gallery Old Quad, University of Melbourne, Melbourne
  • 2019 Reimagining Culture – Contemporary Connections to Culture, Mildura Arts Centre, Mildura
  • 2018 Reimagining Culture, Arts Space Wodonga, Wodonga
  • 2015 Ritual: Connection to Country, Koorie Heritage Trust, Melbourne
  • 2011 Ritual & Ceremony, Bunjilaka Gallery, Melbourne Museum, Melbourne

Group Exhibitions

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