Ms Consuelo Cavaniglia
Master of Fine Arts, Sydney College of Arts, University of Sydney
Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts, Honours (First Class), Curtin University of Technology
Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts, Languages and Literature), University of Western Australia
I am an interdisciplinary artist, independent curator and educator with an interest in understandings of space and perception, and activating artist communities. Currently based on Gadigal land (Sydney), I am Associate Lecturer at UNSW Art, Design & Architecture and Co-Director of experimental art space sydenham international.
In my research and pedagogy I employ relational feminist methodologies, adopting intergenerational exchange as a key approach to consider sustainability of practice, acknowledgement of lineage and shared learning. My work is influenced by film, photography and architecture, and considers how the structures that we inhabit can shape an understanding of our place within societal spaces. The work seeks to question the power structures that are embedded within the spaces we inhabit and navigate.
I have exhibited widely nationally including, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Art Gallery of Western Australia, UNSW Galleries (Gadigal), HEIDE Museum of Modern Art (Narrm), Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery (Boorloo), HOTA (Kurrungul), and most recently a major solo show at Chau Chak Wing Museum that extends through the building, responding to the architecture, the collection, and engages museum staff (2024). In 2019 I was the recipient of the inaugural River Capital Commission at Gertrude Contemporary, the inaugural Macfarlane Commission at ACCA in 2018, and the Create NSW Visual Art Fellowship (Emerging), 2016. I am represented by STATION gallery.
I have lectured in Architecture and Built Environment at University of Sydney (2013-21) and UNSW Art and Design since 2017. I have experience teaching across theory, practice and curating and have been a core member of the BFA Honours supervision team since 2020. At UNSW I established ART to ART with Olivier Krischer and Shuxia Chen in 2023, a program focusing on connecting artists and curators, that brings Master of Curating and Cultural Leadership students in conversation with BFA Honours students. Professionally I have worked in galleries and organisations over the last 17 years in roles including Exhibitions Coordinator, Art Consultant, Gallery Coordinator. I completed my undergraduate studies at Curtin University of Technology in 2002 and was awarded a Master of Fine Art from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney in 2017.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Selected grants
2023 New Work Grant, Creative Australia
2021 New Work Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
2021 NSW Artist Grant, Quick response, Create NSW
2018 New Work Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
2016 Arts NSW Visual Art Fellowship (Emerging)
I have been a finalist in the Fauvette Loureiro Traveling Grant Award (2017 & 2023).
Recent research activities include solo exhibitions night changes things, you can’t see exactly how but you can feel it in your bones, Canberra Glassworks, ACT (2023), lying beside me, Station Gallery, Melbourne, VIC; and through the door that holds you, UNSW Galleries, Sydney, NSW, both in 2022. Most recently I have developed a large scale exhibition at Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney, seeing through you, that for the first times sees and artist expand throughout the building, and engages with the collection and collaborates with the women and gender diverse members of staff.
My work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Me, Also Me, AGWA, curated by Robert Cook and Rachel Ciesla, Perth, WA (2024); wHole, HEIDE Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne VIC, curated by Melissa Keys, A Thousand Different Angles, McClelland Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, curated by Lisa Byrne and Simon Lawrey, and Australian Light, Warrnambool Art Gallery, VIC, curated by Aaaron Bradbrook all in 2022; ConcreteEXPANDED, Holmes à Court Gallery PERTH, WA, curated by Laetitia Wilson (2020); IN-FORMALISM, Casula Powerhouse, NSW, curated by Ruark Lewis and Andrew Leslie; Bauhaus Foto - Ballarat International Photo Biennale, Lost Ones Gallery, Ballarat, VIC, both 2019; and the Macfarlane Commission, ACCA, Melbourne, VIC (upcoming), curated by Annika Christensen and Max Delany.
Curatorial projects include FIRSTS (2024), featuring the first (or close-to-first) works of women and gender diverse artists working in film; co-curating witness. collectors, archivist, narrator at Canberra Contemporary Art Space (2024); absent as well as present sydenham international (2022); The John Fries Award (2017 & 2018) UNSW Galleries; and a large scale program of ephemeral and non-permanent public art in the Perth Cultural Centre (2010-2012)
I am Co-founder and Co-director of experimental art space sydenham international, located in Sydney's inner west.
I am interested in promoting artists at all stages of their career through the programming at sydenham international, developing critical discussion groups, critical writing on artists' practices, mentoring, and generating curatorial projects.
I am a peer assessor for Creative Australia. I have been on the board of directors at ARIs Firstdraft and 55 Sydenham Rd, and am the co-founder of CUT N POLISH Artist Car Boot Sale which ran for 2 years (2022-23) hosted by Carriageworks. I have coordinated various art prizes including the John Fries Award (2017 & 2018), the Fremantle Print Award (2007-2009), the Cossak Art Award, and have been on the judging panel of various prizes/Awards/Fellowships including the Fishers Ghost and the Create NSW Fellowship (Emerging).