RECIPIENT - AWARDED EXHIBITION AND ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE 2025 - 'MUZA' MALTA'S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

Looks like I’ll be jetting back to Malta early 2025! So thrilled to have been awarded a residency and solo exhibition for my proposed project investigating my Australian Maltese bicultural identity at MUZA Malta’s National Museum of Fine Arts Valletta (branded Malta’s National Community Art Museum). My proposed project, exhibition and residency will take place in the 16th Century amazing UNESCO World Heritage site courtyard and building ‘The Auberge D’Italie’ built in 1574 home to Malta’s fantastic national art collection. Super excited!! Bring on the jet lag…2024 planning starts now… Stay tuned!

#australianmalteseartist #internationalexhibition #artistinresidence #muza #artist #installation #sculpture #painting #drawing #ceramics #maltanationalmuseumoffinearts #valletta #project #biculturalidentity #surrealist #womeninthearts #HeritageMalta #maltanationalcommunityartmuseum #communityproject #australianartist #contemporaryart #art

MUZA Installation and exhibition site.

Artist residency and exhibition space inside MUZA.

MUZA foyer Valletta

MUZA Entrance UNESCO World Heritage site ‘The Auberge d’Italie’ built in 1574 Valletta Malta.

'SHADOW SANCTUARY' - DEBUT INTERNATIONAL SOLO - MARIE GALLERY5 MALTA

Very pleased to announce I’ll be having my debut international solo exhibition ‘Shadow Sanctuary’ with the lovely Maria Galea Gallery owner and Art Advisor of Marie Gallery5 in Sliema Malta opening 3rd Nov 7.30pm. Please feel free to come along.

Maria is a passionate advocate for artists and unstoppable force in the Arts industry in Malta/Europe representing Maltese and international talent. As a Maltese Australian artist I’m super excited and proud to be working with her and looking forward to my upcoming exhibition soon.

…”Just as the the moon needs the sun to reflect light, I need the moon to cast my shadow."…

Louisa Chircop

'Shadow Sanctuary' by Louisa Chircop invites viewers on an evocative journey into the profound depths of the artist's conceptual realm. Chircop's oeuvre is a contemplative fusion of personal experiences, art history, and the intricate tapestry of psychological phenomena. Within this exhibition, each artwork serves as a portal, unlocking the enigmatic "shadows of the self," as guided by Chircop's subconscious wanderings within her inner sanctum, intimately intertwined with her Maltese Australian heritage.

Chircop's artistic inquiry transcends conventional boundaries, daring to explore the intricate facets of the human condition-pain, pleasure, guilt, and shame. Her exploration delves into an innovative interpretation of religious sexuality, an intersection where the sacred and the profane merge to construct a deeply personal tantra. This fusion is a vibrant celebration of the terrestrial, the cosmic, and the spiritual-a form of contemporary self-devotion that venerates the Earth, the universe, and spirituality. Amidst the encompassing corporeal darkness, fragments of illumination emerge, unveiling metamorphosed, reinvented, hybrid, and reborn iterations of the artist herself. This creative rebirth finds its genesis in Chircop's immigrant European lineage, rooted in the resolute traditions of medieval antiquity.

3rd - 22nd November @mariegallery5
For more information


#contemporaryart #exhibition #artreel #exhibitionposter #austrailanart #artsydney #malta #gallery #collector #internationalartist #malteseaustralianartist

FINALIST - PADDINGTON ART PRIZE 20TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION - 2023

Couldn’t be more thrilled to be one of 53 National finalists in the 2023 Paddington Art Prize for their epic 20th Anniversary exhibition and celebrations with my work ‘Foreign Body at Pupit Rock - Bundanon’.

The Paddington Art Prize has become the preeminent Australian Landscape Prize of unsurpassed calibre due to Marlene's deliberate choosing of independent judges who each have decades of experience in and contribution toward the Australian Arts.

Each year the Prize aims to discover new talents and invigorate the art market with iconic styles that reflect Australia’s topography and “cultural ethos.” A family-run initiative, the connectedness extends to finalists and winners who become life-long members with subsequent career highlights celebrated and shared online.

The 20th Annual $30,000 Paddington Art Prize Exhibition of National Finalists for a painting inspired by the Australian Landscape will officially be opened on Thursday October 12th at Cooee Art Leven, 17 Thurlow St, Redfern NSW at 6-8pm. With exhibition continuing until the October 22nd 2023 with all works for sale both online and at the exhibition.

I would like to thank the esteemed judging panel Tracey Cooper-Lavery from the National Museum of Australia, Adj. Professor Margo Neale from the National Gallery of Australia and esteemed multi-award and Archibald Prize winning Australian artist Tony Costa for selecting my work amidst this very fine list of National Finalists.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒛𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎

7pm 𝒐𝒏 𝑶𝒄𝒕 12𝒕𝒉.

The Online Exhibition of National Finalists will be viewable on our website from Sept 22nd 2023.

✳ For all Admin  &  Sales Enquiries Contact   info@paddingtonartprize.com.au  

‘Foreign Body at Pupit Rock - Bundanon’ 2023, mixed media and photomontage on archival watercolour paper, approx 66cm x 86cm

'COME SHOWER WITH ME' - SOLO EXHIBITION OPENING 22nd FEB 2020 @shac_robertson

Pen in the Date!…Please join me at the opening of my solo exhibition 'Come Shower with Me' at the SHAC (Southern Highlands Artisans Collective) in Robertson in the wonderful community of the Southern Highlands - which we all know has recently been through a terrible period of the recent bushfires. It's a great opportunity to visit the area, and support the local businesses doing it tough (from buying a coffee to booking a place to stay for the weekend) like at the Robertson Hotel who are proud sponsors of The SHAC. Alternatively join me at Robertson Pub for a drink and an early dinner after the show.

Exhibition to be officially opened by award-winning Sydney Artist Halinka Orszulok Saturday 22nd February 2020 at 2pm at The SHAC (NEXT TO THE BIG POTATO) Exhibition continues and closes Monday March 6th 2020 at 4pm

PLEASE NOTE: the Official opening with drinks and opening address by award winning artist Halinka Orszulok will be Sat 22nd Feb 2020, However the exhibition will be open to the public from Friday 21st Feb 2020 if you happen to be already in the area.

The event is free but please RSVP here to give us an idea with numbers.

Drinks and nibbles provided.

If you can't make the opening you are welcome to drop in Gallery hours are Friday-Monday 10am-4pm

All works for sale. Works will also be available for purchase in an online catalogue coming soon.

enquiries@theshac.com.au

Enquiries: Patsy Peacock (President)
patsy@theshac.com.au
0614 0299 8644

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

‘Come shower with me’ invites viewers into the intimate world of Sydney based artist Louisa Chircop. As the title of her exhibition suggests, Chircop not only utilises the idea of the history of women’s activity in the bathroom but also uses the concept of showering to parallel her creative process in an ode to free association and surrealism, similarly the way ideas come to mind in the shower.

Through Chircop’s experience and interest in art history and psychological phenomenons, she explores the human condition creating images that are illicit in nature, rendered with complex meaning and hints of the shadow self. Chance encounters are played out repositioning women in art history whilst simultaneously positioning herself in relation to history, creating a metaphorical allegory about our present time.

Chircop is comfortable as chameleon, every image is a reconstruct of thought drawn from a stream of subconscious detritus into the reservoir of her conscious awakening. She creates with the inquisitive mind of an octopus foraging through its shady garden on the ocean floor. Every work, a token re-cleansing of the body, mind and spirit is an attempt to navigate existential pathways through the world resurrecting the female image from the grave of western art.

GROUP SHOW GALERIE HEIMAT SAINT-RÉMY FRANCE- 'EXPOSITION NOËL_001' 2020

Feeling the Christmas spirit and feeling very special to be included in ‘Exposition Noël_001’ at Galerie Heimat in Saint-Rémy Provence France, the village town where Van Gogh made it famous. Curated by the ever so lovely and beautifully spirited Alexandra Chiara director of this stunning commercial gallery in the heart of Provence. She has brought together nine artists (painters, sculptors and jewellery makers) both locally and internationally from France, Germany, China, Finland and me from Australia. It touched me that she was so excited to welcome me as her first ever Australian artist from wayyyy down under! and be representing me in this exhibition. I wish I could be there for the opening but I’ll be seeing you all again in 2020 when I will be doing my residency. Exhibition opens Saturday 7th December. The exhibition continues until the 11th January 2020. Gallery Hours Thursday - Sunday 11am - 7pm. JOYEUX NOËL !

‘Mange moi, bois moi, aime-moi’ (Eat me, drink me, love me), mixed media and photomontage on paper 51cm x 40.5cm

FINALIST - HAZELHURST ART ON PAPER AWARD 2019

Since 2001 The Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award has been a significant national biennial exhibition that aims to elevate the status of works on paper while supporting and promoting artists working with this medium. So thrilled to be a finalist this year with my work ‘Fright and Delight-Bundanon’, a work that was inspired when I was artist-in-residence at Bundanon Trust last year. Congratulations and best wishes to all artists who are finalists. This will be an amazing exhibition.

Exhibition launch and announcement of award recipients will be held on Friday 20th Sept 6pm at Hazelhurst Gallery.

CURATED EXHIBITION - 'EVERYDAY MADONNA' CASULA POWERHOUSE ARTS CENTRE

Very happy to be included in this exhibition at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre with works featured from over the last five years sourced from private collections. Exhibition launch event on Saturday 18 May (2-4pm) All Welcome.

"Drawing from iconic and classical images of the Madonna and Child (created mostly by men), artists in Everyday Madonna respond to the ideas of motherhood from their own perspective”.

18 May 2019 - 30 Jun 2019 | 9.00am - 4.00pm

Everyday Madonna features works by these artists: Eddie Abd, Linda Brescia, Louisa Chircop, Karla Dickens, Mona Ibrahim, Nicole Monks, Susan O’Doherty, Pamela Rodoreda, Marikit Santiago, Rokeya Sultana.

'Land' at Manly Art Gallery and Museum 3 Nov- 3 Dec 2017

I'm thrilled to have had my proposal submission accepted by senior curator of Manly Art Gallery and Museum Katherine Roberts for an exhibition themed 'Land'. The curated exhibition will feature 43 artists from Sydney using a broad range of media in responses to the theme 'Land' for inspiration. I'm looking forward to producing the work and being showcased later in the year. More details to come!

26th April 2017

'3 Painters' Group Show

It's wonderful to be showing alongside two of my colleagues and fellow painters for an upcoming group show at the McGlade Gallery ACU Strathfield, Sydney. The last time our works were seen together was when we were all finalists in The Dobell Prize for Australian Drawing at the Art Gallery of NSW, so this is very special. The show will be officially launched on the 26th of April by the lovely Nick Vickers, independent curator, please join us for drinks.

Hardcopy invite