For Marion Harper, painting is a method of making that affirms her own life, as well as helping her to confront the inevitable forces that claw and pester at its edges.
Following a sustained investigation into geometric abstraction, her recent paintings incorporate figures. This is her way of examining the connections, and entanglements that exist between different bodies—human, nonhuman, objects and things, and the world into which they are propelled and then must negotiate.
Marion’s internal world has thereby been infused with questions of subjectivity, politics, ethics, and what it means to be a human today. She engages with individual experiences of embodiment and perception, asking what bodies can do and how bodies interact. Throughout her painting life, Marion has been forming and dissolving ideas about what it means to be embodied. She seeks painterly ways to unsettle existing modes of looking and thinking about bodies, driven by some early experiences: witnessing broken bodies in a remote mountain as a teenager; her medical training during the Aids epidemic; and to a life-changing event that threw a close friend into re-evaluating the certainties of his corporeal being in the world.
I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the country where I live, work and my family grows, the Boon Wurrung/Bunurong of the Kulin Nation, who are the recognised custodians of this land. I recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture and pay respects to their Elders past, present and emerging whose land was never ceded
Marion Harper has been practising painting for nearly 30 years. She completed her art training in painting at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in the mid-90s. Following graduation, Marion exhibited widely in both solo and group shows (see below), receiving public endorsement in the form of grants from Arts Victoria and an Australia Council residency in Paris. She was a founding member of the successful, artist-run space, Basement Gallery in Melbourne, and part of the project management team of the Melbourne International Biennial
Marion took a break from public artmaking when she had her two sons, transferring her art thinking and making onto the actions of her everyday life. Much is being written today about women artists and mothering, and Marion reflects on this time as a highly fruitful one, in which new ideas were germinating and the production of work played out away from exhibiting logics.
Her works are held in the QUT Collection, the Latrobe University Collection, and various private collections. She is undertaking an MFA (Research) at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.
Marion Harper
lives and works in Merricks
Study : MFA (by Research) VCA, 2024, BA. Fine Arts (Painting) VCA, Melb Uni. Ass Dip of Visual Arts Swinburne Uni, BA. Monash Uni (Honors in philosophy and political science). Bach of Medicine (2 yrs) Monash Uni.
Selected Solo Exhibitions: Restless Encounter, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, A Misfit Choreography, VCA Artspace, Marion Harper Recent Works, Kleinerfelt, Tristian Koenig Gallery, I Am Scattering Like Light, Fortyfivedownstairs, Shimmer + Inner Eye, Dogg Projects. Otherland, Talk Gallery. Default, Centre of Contemporary Photography, Cartouche + Olivine, Basement Gallery. Morphic Resonances, Temple Gallery.
Selected Group Exhibitions: Porter St Launch, Gallerysmith, Prahran, Blue Period, One star, Hcraeser, VCA Art Space, Airlock, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Finalist McClelland’s Senini Award 2021 for Ceramics, Finalist, Bayside Aquisitive Art Prize, Bayside Gallery, Summer Show ArtBox, Bunker, Linden Cont. Respond Red or Blue, curated Lauren Berkowitz, RMH, Melb Festival Project. Logos 25 Artists videos, Danius Kesminas + Ben Morieson, Adelaide Biennale. Foldback, Ngapartji Multimedia Centre, Adelaide. Artrage, Artworks for Television curated Kim Machan, screening on ABC's rage overnight, IMA Brisbane, EAF Adelaide, PICA + Umbrella Studio Townsville. Teststrip, Auckland, New Zealand. Rumble, CCP curated Stuart Koop. Photoposters, CCP. Labyrinths, Platform, Spencer St Station, curated Rachel Kent. Critical Mass, Arts Vic Gallery, curated Shiralee Saul. e-Topia, New Media Network, Southgate. Projection: Filming the Body, Basement Gallery, curated Natalie King. Momento, New Media Network, Southbank, Melb. Don't Stop, Linden Cont. Plastiche, Basement Project. Club Tractor, Arts Access Gallery, Lions Arts Centre, Adelaide. Luminaries, Monash Uni. Vitae, RMIT Melb. Crashcourse, Access Gallery NGV. Images of Women, Gryphon Gallery, Melb Uni.
Professional Experience: Aust Co. Project Grant Multimedia Residency, France. Project Manager, Melb International Biennial, Melb Uni. Project Manager, Experimenta Media Arts. Multimedia Producer, Digital Agency Icon Art. Gallery Director, Stop 22 Melb Fringe. Tutor Fine Art and Multimedia RMIT + Swinburne Uni.
Represented by Gallerysmith, Melbourne