Mira Gojak facts for kids

Mira Gojak is an Australian artist. She was born in Adelaide in 1963. Now, she lives and works in Melbourne. Her sculptures are like drawings in the air. They show how gravity pulls things down. They also show how things can float. Her art makes you think about inside and outside spaces. Mira Gojak is also famous for her drawings. She has won many awards. Her art has been shown in Australia and in Hong Kong.

About Mira Gojak

Mira Gojak's parents moved to Australia. They were part of the Catholic Slovenian and Croatian community in Adelaide. Mira has said she grew up in two different cultures. Her mother wanted her to be a doctor. Mira studied science at university. She earned high marks in Zoology and animal behaviour Psychology. But she found she did not enjoy working with animals. She then thought art would give her more freedom. So, she moved to Melbourne to study art.

In 1989, she finished a special art and design course. This was at Prahran TAFE in Melbourne. In 1990, she went to the Victorian College of the Arts. She graduated in 1992 with a degree in Fine Arts (Painting). From 2014, she started working on a PhD. This is a very high university degree. She studied at Monash University in Caufield, Victoria.

Mira's artistic skills have been recognized. She has received grants, prizes, and special art residencies. A residency means an artist gets a place to live and work. In 2004, she got a grant of $10,000 from Arts Victoria. From 2004 to 2006, Mira was a studio artist. She worked at the Gertrude Street Contemporary Art Spaces in Melbourne. In 2011, she received another Arts Victoria Grant for $12,500. In 2014, she got another grant. This was for an exhibition as a Studio Artist at Gertrude Street.

In 2005, she won the Maddock's Art Prize. This prize comes from the Australia Council for the Arts. It is given every two years. It helps new artists. A law firm called Maddock sponsors this prize.

In 2012, her art was in a special book. The book was called 101 Contemporary Australian Artists. The National Gallery of Victoria published it.

In 2014, Mira spent several months in Barcelona, Spain. There, she took photos of the sky. She photographed the sky through her studio window. Airplane trails crossed the sky in her photos. These photos gave her ideas for new artworks. She used blue yarn in these new works. She showed them in 2016.

Mira's Artworks

Mira Gojak's sculptures often use color. They are like her drawings on paper. Her drawings are usually in black-and-white. Mira says that if she gets tired of one art form, she switches to the other.

Her artworks, both drawings and sculptures, are very linear. This means they focus on lines. Someone asked her what was important about lines in her art. She said lines show "fluidity and movement." She also said they can "scramble fixed boundaries." This means lines can break down clear edges. They can make boundaries disappear or become see-through. Or, they can make boundaries clearer.

Mira has also used yarn in her art. She winds the yarn to create a big mass of lines. This can suggest a very long distance. She wraps this yarn around parts of her linear sculptures.

Exhibitions

Mira Gojak has shown her art in many places. Here are some of her solo shows:

She has also been part of many group exhibitions with other artists. Some of these include:

Art Collections

Mira Gojak's art is part of important collections. One place that owns her work is the Art Gallery of New South Wales.