STAFF PROFILE
Ms (Emma) Louise Weaver
(Emma) Louise Weaver is a lecturer in the School of Art Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) Program
Louise Weaver's multidisciplinary practice employs an assortment of media in the creation of both individual works and expansive sculptural installations that centre around the natural world. The paintings, sculptures and environments that Weaver creates interact with a broad range of themes. Weaver has a fascination with metamorphosis, cycles of growth and the intricacies of camouflage. Her work plays with these concepts and extends them into ideas surrounding artificiality, transformation, social themes and feminism, underpinned by the enduring power of mythology, make-believe and memory. Highly propositional, her works are imaginative and poetic objects, tableaux, constellations and fields for contemplation. Through the intricate traceries, patterns, webs and nets that appear throughout her practice, Weaver suggests a complex interconnected universe of fragile beauty that comprises things real and imagined, fleeting and eternal.
Her recent Survey Exhibition; Between Appearances: The art of Louise Weaver curated by Melissa Keys, was held at Buxton Contemporary, The University of Melbourne. Comprising selected works from her more than 30-year career, in addition to a significant new commission that included ambitious site-specific works that in part addressed aspects of the historic architectural fabric of the host museum through built form, tactile surface, movement and aural sensation. This exhibition was generously supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Buxton Contemporary, and was accompanied by an extensive catalogue.
Louise Weaver has held 27 individual exhibitions and more that 170 group exhibitions; including significant curated exhibitions in 14 countries internationally. Her works are held in International and National collections including the British Museum, UK; Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Her work has been cited in journals, newspaper articles and published books; including Women's Art and Feminist Criticism in Australia 1968-2018 by Anne Marsh (to be published 2020); included in the Victorian VCE Curriculum, as well as cited in numerous MFA Research and PhD Thesis/Dissertations.
https://www.darrenknightgallery.com/artists/weaver/
Recent Professional Activities
- Member of the Judging Panel for the 2019 Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award.
- Speaker for Geelong Gallery Forum for VCE Studio Arts 2019
- Member of the Stonnington Council, Art Acquisition Panel 2015 – 2018
- Interviewed for Art Guide by Tiarney Mekius January 2020. Podcast link available here.
- Interviewed for Vision Australia Radio 6th January 2020 by Chris Thompson. Podcast link available here.
- BA, Fine Art, RMIT
- MA, Fine Art, RMIT
Selected individual exhibitions
- 2019 Between Appearances: The art of Louise Weaver, Buxton Contemporary, The University of Melbourne.
- 2019 Behind the Scenes, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.
- 2017 The Kind That Gives Body to Words, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.
- 2015 Dark Spring, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.
- 2013 Night Repair, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.
- 2012 Catalyst, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne.
- 2011 Works on Paper, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.
- 2010 Capsize, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.
- 2009 Firestarter, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.
- 2008 Secrets are for keeping, Darren Knight Gallery at Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne.
- 2007 Out of this world, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.
- 2006 Taking a chance on love - Selected works 1990-2006, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Victoria.
- 2005 No small wonder, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney; No small wonder, Darren Knight Gallery at Silvershot, Melbourne.
- 2004 Australian Print Workshop Gallery, Melbourne.
- 2003 Michael Lett, Auckland, New Zealand
- 2003 Taking a Chance on Love, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney
- 2003 Moonlight Becomes You, City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand and Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand
Selected group exhibitions
- 2019 – 2020 Turmoil and tranquillity - recent acquisitions 2018-19, Geelong Gallery, Victoria, Australia
- 2019 – 2020 A stitch in time, Hamilton Gallery, Victoria, Australia
- 2019 The Moon, Geelong Gallery, Victoria
- 2019 Glass Eye, LON Gallery, Melbourne
- 2019 Acts of Reversal: Some Abstraction from China, New Zealand and Australia, Five Walls, Melbourne
- 2019 Museum of Aphorisms and Platitudes, c3 Contemporary Art Space, Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne
- 2019 Perceiving The Matter Of Time In Recent Painting And Photography, Five walls, Melbourne
- 2019 Word of Mouth, a pop-up project in four fragments, Venice, Italy
- 2018–21 Obsessed: Compelled to Make, Australian Design Centre, Sydney, national touring exhibition
- 2018 Birdlife, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
- 2018 The Horse, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney
- 2018 Bowerbird: Clinton Bradley and the Art of Collecting, Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo, NSW
- 2018 The Lady and the Unicorn, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- 2017 Cross Section, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
- 2017 World Material, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney
- 2017 Collective Vision: 130 Years, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
- 2016–19 Soft Core, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, NSW, national touring exhibition
- 2016 Sugar Spin: You, Me and Everything, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
- 2016 Human/Animal/ Artist, McClelland Sculpture Park+Gallery, Langwarrin, Victoria
- 2016 Birds: Flight Paths in Australian Art, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington, Victoria
- 2016 Wildthing: Animals in Contemporary Australian Art, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
- 2016 Museum of Doubt, Despard Gallery, Hobart
- 2015 Asia Contemporary Art Exhibition, Jeonbuk Museum of Art, South Korea
- 2015 Colourwheel, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- 2015 Hiding in Plain Sight: a selection of works from the Buxton Collection, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
- 2015 Venice and Biennale Artists at APW, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne,
- 2014 The Museum of Abject Sentimentality, RMIT School of Art Gallery, Melbourne
- 2013 Animate/Inanimate, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria,
- 2013 Myths, Monsters & Magical Things, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
- 2012 Air Born, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria
- 2012 Contemporary Australia: Women, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.
- 2012 Sculpture is Everything: Contemporary Works from the Collection, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane,
- 2012 Play, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra,
- 2012 Drawing Out: Drawing as notation, text and discovery, Camberwell College of Art, University of the Arts, London, UK
Grants & awards
- 2019 Australia Council Visual Arts Board, New Work Grant
- 2009 Australia Council Visual Arts Board, New York Studio Residency, USA
- 2009 Australian Tapestry Workshop Studio Residency, Melbourne, Australia
- 2007 Australian Print Workshop Venice Studio Residency, Italy
- 2003 The Cicely and Colin Rigg Contemporary Design Award, Australia
- 2003 Australian Print Workshop Collie Print Trust Inaugural Fellowship
- 1999 Arts 21 International Export and Touring Program, Arts Victoria
- 1998 Australia Council Visual Arts/Craft Fund Grant
Collections
- The British Museum, London, United Kingdom
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
- Monash University Collection, Melbourne, Australia
- The University of Melbourne Art Collection, Australia
- Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
- Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand
- Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia
- Geelong Gallery, Victoria, Australia
- RMIT University Art Collection, Australia
- Artbank, Sydney & Melbourne, Australia
- Malaysian Institute of Management, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Dubbo Regional Art Gallery, Australia
- Wollongong University Collection, Australia
- The Michael Buxton Collection, Melbourne, Australia
- City of Stonnington Art Collection, Melbourne, Australia
- Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane, Australia
- Faculty of Science Collection, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- Weaver, E. (2021). Behind the scenes In: Geelong Contemporary Prize Geelong, Australia
- Weaver, E. (2019). Between Appearances: The Art of Louise Weaver In: Between Appearances: The art of Louise Weaver Melbourne, Australia
- Weaver, E.,Ellis, P. (2019). Nocturne (Entr'acte) In: Between Appearances: The art of Louise Weaver Melbourne, Australia
- Weaver, E. (2019). Silvering (Moon dust) In: The Moon Geelong, Victoria, Australia
- Weaver, E. (2018). sculpture In: Obsessed: compelled to make Sydney, Australia
- Weaver, E. (2017). Sparkling Dew-Covered Branch In: Every Brilliant Eye: Australian Art Of The 1990's Melbourne, Australia
- Weaver, E. (2016). Moonlight becomes you (two squirrels) In: Soft Core Sydney, Australia
- Weaver, E. (2015). Sooty Owl In: Asia Contemporary Art Exhibition 2015 Jeonbuk, South Korea
- Weaver, E. (2015). Guido Valdez (Vendetta for Love) In: Colourwheel Sydney, Australia
- Weaver, E. (2015). Taking a Chance on Love In: 'Hiding in Plain Sight' A Selection of Works from the Michael Buxton Collection Bendigo, Australia
3 PhD Completions and 2 Masters by Research Completions